Some impressions from the weekend series against the Nats

Some thoughts after the end of the weekend series in Washington. The clubs split six games this year and today's O's win keeps the Orioles ahead, 19-17, in the all-time series versus the Nationals. * We've said it before, but maybe this team will finally get hot on offense for an extended time. It seems that Nick Markakis and Derrek Lee have heated up and maybe those hot bats will join those of Adam Jones, Matt Wieters and J.J. Hardy to see this club finally put up some runs. Markakis is batting .378 (17-for-45) during a 10-game batting streak. He has just one RBI in eight games since that 6-RBI night, but, after his extended slump, his offense has finally taken a turn for the better. Hardy is batting .368 (25-for-68) with six homers and 12 RBIs over his past 17 games. He has five doubles in his last six games and the homer total (6 in 17 games) matches his homer total of all of last year. Vladimir Guerrero is getting some down time now and maybe the rest will spark more extra-base hits in his bat. I won't predict this team is going on an offensive tear, but it does appear that more players are hitting well at one time now than at just about any point this year. * Chris Jakubauskas gave his team a much-needed solid effort today. In a game with the DH he probably would have pitched longer than five innings. But he put up three shutout innings at the start when the Nats were licking their chops for a sweep and nine-game win streak. The Orioles are now 2-1 in his three starts. * Mark Reynolds made some nice defensive plays last night and had three hits today. Maybe that is why Buck stuck with him after a couple of horrendous games. It's a long season and you have to play your way out of slumps - at bat and in the field. * The Orioles had an error-free game today while watching the Nats make three errors. Maybe the sloppy baserunning and fielding miscues for the club will lessen now and they will put some of those farther in the rear-view mirror. * By the way, the three-date attendance of 107,615 was impressive, bolstered no doubt from some Washington-area O's fans. While this is no hot rivalry, the games do have a little extra spice to them and attendance like that is why interleague play is probably here to stay. What are some of your thoughts on my opinions and the weekend series?