You certainly can't draw many conclusions from the first few innings of the first game, but...... *Adam Jones told Gary Thorne before the game "if someone needs a kick in the butt this year, I'll do it. If I need a kick in the butt, I hope someone will do it." Minutes later, he went out and hit a Jamie Walker "rocket ship" off the center-field wall. Then he homered to right in the third. That's leadership. In his last five Opening Day at bats, Jones is 5 for 5 with a triple,...

The Baltimore Orioles begin their 57th year of Major League Baseball tonight at 7:10 p.m. on the road vs. the Tampa Bay Rays. The O's are opening on the road for just the second time in 15 years. The O's went 64-98 last year while Tampa finished at 84-78, one year after winning the American League championship. Tampa sported baseball's best record in spring training games at 20-8 with two ties. In the last 13 years, the team that had the best spring training record in the Majors made the...

Tampa Bay Rays starter James Shields has been impressive tonight. He'd be unhittable if not for Adam Jones. Jones doubled to center field in the first inning, and he just homered to right with the count full in the third to give the Orioles a 1-0 lead. Jones kept battling Shields through a 10-pitch at-bat. It ended with Jones going into his home run trot as right fielder Ben Zobrist raced to the fence. Orioles 1, Tampa Bay 0. Jones has accounted for both Orioles hits. Shields has walked...

It probably won't come as a shock to anyone that the first ball put in play by the Rays managed to find Miguel Tejada at third base. Tejada fielded Jason Bartlett's grounder and made a strong throw to first. It's all downhill from here. Carl Crawford showed bunt on the next pitch, but pulled back. Kevin Millwood threw 18 pitches in the first inning, 10 for strikes. He fanned Evan Longoria on a 91 mph fastball with the count full to strand Ben Zobrist at second base. The Orioles made...

As I sit here in the second row of the Tropicana Field press box, I join my fellow scribes in wondering why it doesn't feel like Opening Day. Maybe if they could open the roof. It's so different on a Monday afternoon at Camden Yards. This could be any other game on any other night. I'm half expecting Aubrey Huff to be batting for the Rays and Jorge Julio to be one straight fastball away from a blown save. It's good to be here. It's just...different. I hope that makes sense. You'd...

Brian Roberts kept telling everyone that he'd be ready for the opener, that he could get his body ready while dealing with a herniated disk in his back. Rather than experiencing a feeling of satisfaction today, Roberts described it more as "relief." This is one time when he really wanted to be right. "I'm very thankful that I am here," he said while standing at his locker before batting practice. "The training staff has been great, the doctors have been great. Everybody's gone above...

Only 11 players from last year's Opening Day roster remain with the club tonight: Matt Albers, Jeremy Guthrie, Mark Hendrickson, Cesar Izturis, Jim Johnson, Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, Felix Pie, Brian Roberts, Luke Scott and Ty Wigginton. Miguel Tejada ended the 2009 season with a 21-game hitting streak with the Houston Astros. If Tejada gets a hit tonight, he'll become only the third player in major league history to have a streak of 20 or more games spread over two leagues, according to...

Is Tiger Woods doing anything interesting this week? I might be out of the loop. In case you forgot or just want to check them out again, here are the lineups for tonight's opener at Tropicana Field: For the Orioles: Brian Roberts 2B Adam Jones CF Nick Markakis RF Miguel Tejada 3B Luke Scott DH Matt Wieters C Felix Pie LF Garrett Atkins 1B Cesar Izturis SS Kevin Millwood RHP For the Rays: Jason Bartlett SS Carl Crawford LF Ben Zobrist RF Evan Longoria 3B Carlos Pena 1B B.J. Upton CF Pat...

Happy Opening Day! Kicking off a new chapter of Where at Nats Park, can you figure out where this photo was taken? Good luck! Answers will be posted on Wednesday. Answer: Good work, folks. This is a Curly W on top of the Capitol dome hanging in the Stars and Stripes Club.

In a bright red Nationals jacket with a White Sox cap tucked inside his glove, President Barack Obama made his first appearance at a Nationals game to honor the 100 year anniversary of the ceremonial first pitch by an American president. Before the game, he met with the team to wish them luck. He also threw five to six warm up pitches to Pudge Rodriguez. "He was afraid to throw the ball on the ground, but I told him just grab the four seams and just throw it as hard as he [could],"...