Leading off this entry with Lugo

Julio Lugo is atop the order again tonight after collecting eight hits in his last 17 at-bats. Manager Dave Trembley is looking for anyone who can handle the leadoff duties or at least swing the bat with some authority. He listed only four players who have been consistent for him this season: Nick Markakis, Ty Wigginton, Miguel Tejada and Matt Wieters. "The other guys have not," Trembley said. "Lugo finds himself playing tonight. He has decent numbers against (Cliff) Lee. I'm still looking for a guy to give us something out of the leadoff spot. He's done OK in that role. I'm hoping tonight he can be the guy to have a good game." Trembley isn't exactly showering Lugo with praise here. Trembley made reference to Lugo's numbers against Lee. As I wrote earlier today, Lugo is 6-for-22 lifetime against the left-hander, with a double, triple and RBI. Trembley said he'd like to see Lugo work the count better, using an at-bat in Saturday's Game 2 against the Twins as an example, but that's also true of other players. "If you're going to be a leadoff hitter, you can't be afraid to hit with two strikes," he said. "That's probably one of the nice things about (Brian) Roberts. He'd draw the count out 3-1, 3-2, foul some balls off. I think a lot of guys could do a much better job with that. "On the flipside, when you've scuffled scoring runs as we have done, I think a lot of times guys go up there and they're trying to catch up, and I've been redundant and repetitive in saying this. They take an approach that's not real conducive to being the best possible at-bat that they can have. "I think we've given away way too many at-bats, so hopefully it gets better. It has been addressed. I don't know what else I can do about it. "I don't think anybody can fault the intent. The intent is guys want to do well, and I think (Adam) Jones is probably a primary example. The guy wants to do so well, he's swung at so many bad pitches. And when he doesn't, he's fine."