Manny Machado reaching new heights atop the order (Schoop with walk-off HR)

Orioles third baseman Manny Machado is batting leadoff tonight in his 64th game this season. It no longer seems unusual.

Machado is hitting .311/.369/.554 with 14 doubles, a triple, 15 home runs, 36 RBIs and 43 runs scored while positioned atop the order. Should manager Buck Showalter consider moving him down while his club struggles to score runs?

"Would you move him?" Showalter asked a reporter. "I'm going to ask you first. Who would lead off if we took him out of there? I actually thought of Chris Davis one time.

"The computer tells you to take your best hitter and hit him first, take your second-best hitter and hit him second. The whole idea is to get them up to the plate as many times as possible. I'd like to know how many extra at-bats Manny has got during this period he's led off, where if he was hitting somewhere else.

"I don't have any plans right now. If we moved him and he went 0-for-16 ... I just want him to be who he is. Don't try to fit some mold of what a leadoff hitter's supposed to be."

Machado is tied with Davis for the team lead in home runs with 19. His career high was 14 in 156 games in 2013.

The Orioles don't know how he's going to evolve as a power hitter, but they like the direction he's headed.

"We make the mistake of thinking just because someone hits eight home runs when they're 20 that they're going to his 16 when they're 21 and 32 when they're 23," Showalter said. "I don't really care. I just want him to be as good as he's capable of being and have a good support group around him that allows him to do that, whether it be coaches or teammates.

'He's had a lot of challenges. Sometimes, we try to make people grow up too fast and we're all in this room guilty of it, because that's what people want us to delivery. It's like I tell people all the time with these travels squads and Little League and all that stuff, let a kid be a kid. Come on. Sometimes, we want them to get the trappings of experience and maturity before they're there. Manny, all things considered, has handled it well. I'm proud of him and I'm proud of the environment that he's around."

Machado will be surrounded by All-Stars next week for the second time in his career, and he's participating in his first Home Run Derby. Some managers worry about a player ruining his swing during the competition, leading to a slump to open the second half of the season.

"It's something that Manny has earned and I don't want to take it away from him," Showalter said. "It's great for him and his family. If something like that's going to happen, it's not meant to be anyway. We're not very strong mechanically if something like that would get in the way.

"All the things I've got to worry about and we've got to worry about, hitting of a 75 mph fastball and trying to leave Earth. ... I got it. I know what some people can make it look like, but he's earned it and the game and the fans have earned the right to watch him. I think sometimes we get so overly cautious with some of that stuff. What's the end game? You're going to win a battle and lose the war?"

Showalter knows that his players, especially center fielder Adam Jones, would benefit from complete rest during the break, but he's fine with them participating in the Midsummer Classic.

"We talk about selection process, but there's a thing in place to let the fans pick who they want, there's a thing in place to let the players have some input," Showalter said. "Then, the managers at the end of the day get to pick somebody so they can try to win the game that a lot of people think they should try to win, so there's a lot of ways to get people there. Then, when somebody gets hurt there's another method to get them there. It's thought out."

Closer Zach Britton was named to his first All-Star team after racking up 23 saves, including 19 in a row, in 24 opportunities. He's bringing a 1.77 ERA into tonight's series opener.

Britton will join Machado, Jones and reliever Darren O'Day in Cincinnati.

"Pretty neat," Britton said. "Talking to Buck, Dave (Wallace) and Dom (Chiti) about it, we talked about the path. Me and Dave and Dom were out in California a couple years ago and just trying to figure out how to get back to being successful in any role, starting or relieving. And obviously getting named as an All-Star as a closer is pretty special. Obviously not something I expected when I was younger looking back. It's pretty neat and I'm excited to go with Manny, Darren and Jonesy, so it should be fun."

Britton is especially happy for O'Day, who made it despite not being a high-profile starter or closer. It's more of a challenge for a set-up man.

"I feel like those guys definitely get overlooked," Britton said. "Now that I've been around those guys, out of the starting role for a while, you realize how tough it is to do what he's done for the last few years. I'm really happy for him. Maybe since (American League manager) Ned Yost uses his bullpen, maybe he never overlooked a guy like Darren. He appreciates what he does.

"I'm just excited for him, and I think the fact that we have two guys from our bullpen is pretty neat, too. That doesn't happen too often, so we're both excited."

The four Orioles will share the same clubhouse with Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista. Will the colors of the AL uniforms include a splash of bad blood?

"We're all professionals and whatever happens in between the lines, that's just competitive nature," Britton said. "Once you kind of get out of that and you meet him or whatever, you forget about that. We're all professionals, we understand that just because you act one way on the field and do something on the field doesn't mean that's the type of person you are. We all do things when we're competitive that maybe we regret later.

"I don't think we'll have an issue. I really don't. Like I said, we're all professionals. He's a professional, and I think it will be a good experience to be around those guys."

Update: Jones homered on the first pitch from Gio Gonzalez leading off the bottom of the fourth inning to break a scoreless tie.

Jones has 178 home runs as an Oriole, one shy of tying Frank Robinson for eighth-place on the club's all-time list.

Chris Tillman has retired seven in a row. He's thrown 61 pitches in four innings.

Update II: The Nationals scored twice on five hits to take a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning. Tillman is up to 82 pitches.

Update III: Chris Parmelee reached on an infield single while pinch-hitting for Steve Pearce in the eighth inning and he scored with one out on Matt Wieters' RBI double off Matt Thornton. Orioles 2, Nationals 2

Wieters had two three-hit games in his last three starts.

Tonight's attendance: 46,289, the largest crowd of the season.

Update IV: Jonathan Schoop hit his first career walk-off home run, a solo shot off Tanner Roark with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to give the Orioles a 3-2 win over the Nationals.

Zach Britton gets his first decision after retiring all three batters in the top of the ninth.

The Orioles are 1-36 when trailing after the seventh.