You can’t blame Nationals fans for celebrating: after two embarrassing shutout losses in New York, the Nationals rapped out nineteen hits and scored 17 runs in a badly needed win against their rival Orioles. Danny Espinosa was the team’s heaviest hitter, going 3-4 and notching five RBIs. The Nats’ power surge also included home runs by Jayson Werth (who had two), Roger Bernadina, Laynce Nix, Wilson Ramos — and of course Espinosa. That’s six Nationals’ home runs in one game, something that Nationals fans never see.

Orioles’ manager Buck Showalter was philosophical about the loss: “I think it was probably a given they were going to hit better as the season progresses. It’s just unfortunate it was against us.” That was probably news for Nats’ fans, who have been increasingly critical of the anemic line-up and wondering when things were going to change. But Friday’s game was a sign that perhaps the Nationals have gotten on track. Jayson Werth seems to think so: “I think everybody knows we have been struggling with the bats and not getting hits,” he said in the visitor’s clubhouse following the win. “It has been a long time coming. We have a good team. Hopefully we can build on this and keep going.”

Unfortunately for Washington, starter Jason Marquis didn’t stay in the game long enough to profit from the Nats’ outburst. The Nationals’ righty, who has returned to the form he showed for the Colorado Rockies’ in 2009, was pulled by Nats’ manager Jim Riggleman after four — and was damned mad about it, showing his emotion in the dugout after he was lifted. Riggleman said he’d never seen Marquis so angry. Marquis shrugged off the incident: “I want to be out on the field, battling out there with the teammates,” he said. “It’s a one-game thing. So I’m going to go out there, do my work like I always do, prepare for the fifth day, take that ball and be ready to get a W.”

But the story of the game was the Nationals at the plate: the 17 runs were a Nationals record, and nearly every slumping player contributed: Ian Desmond was 2-6, Wilson Ramos was 3-4 and Jayson Werth brought his batting average to .247. And despite the lifting of Jason Marquis (he simply looked ineffective), the Nationals got a solid three innings performance from maybe-he-can-hit-the-strike-zone after all Henry Rodriguez.

The other piece of good news (though it’s almost, dare we say, predictable now) is the Nationals were perfect in the field. Which is pretty good commentary on the game: when the team puts it altogether, they look almost (almost) unbeatable.

Martin Prado’s bases loaded home run in the bottom of the 7th inning tied the game at 5 — and the Atlanta Braves went on to win, 6-5 in ten innings against the Nationals in Atlanta. The Prado blast came against reliever Sean Burnett, but the game might have gone the other way: a check swing on a 2-2 count should have put Prado back on the bench and preserved the Nationals’ lead, but the call gave Prado a second life. The loss in Atlanta prevented the Nationals from notching a sweep of the Braves, and a victory that would have provided a positive end to a tough N.L. East road trip.

Prado’s ten pitch at bat, and the check swing, remained the topic of conversation after the game. “I think Burnett got the non-benefit — or whatever the terminology is — on a couple of check swings,” Nats’ manager Jim Riggleman said after the loss. “That irritates the heck out of me, those check swings. He’s got to end up throwing a pitch to Prado with the bases loaded, when maybe that wouldn’t have been the case.” The might-have-been loss squandered a good outing from Nats’s starter Jordan Zimmermann, who threw 6.1 solid innings. This was the kind of outing the Nats were looking for from Zimmermann, who struck out 11 and walked just one.

Once again, the Nationals seemed unable to loosen up their bats. The team registered just five hits against Atlanta’s very average Derek Lowe and a gaggle of relievers. Lowe struggled through six, but Craig Kimbrel — the goat on Thursday — gave the Braves a badly needed three-up-three-down 10th inning. Kimbrel struck out Ian Desmond, Jayson Werth and Laynce Nix to pitch a perfect frame. “That might have been the best outing he’s had all year,” Atlanta manager Fredi Gonzalez said after the Atlanta win. The Nationals are at home tonight, where they will face off against the Florida Marlins.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The most exciting game on Thursday night took place just up the highway in Baltimore — and featured one of the best pitchers’ duels of the 2011 campaign. The Orioles, as inconsistent as any team in baseball in the early going, pulled out a 1-0 walk-off win in the 12th inning, but the story of the night was the pitching of O’s rookie Zach Britton and Mariners’ semi-veteran Jason Vargas. Both hurlers threw the best games of their career.

Britton, a 6-3 California lefty, was the odds-on early season favorite for Rookie of the Year honors — and last night’s performance confirmed that judgment. Britton’s nine inning stint was a thing of beauty: three hits, no runs, no walks and five strikeouts. Vargas matched him pitch-for-pitch — nine innings, four hits, no runs, one walk and four strikeouts. Baltimore won the game in the extra frames on a single from just-returned shortstop J.J. Hardy. The victory notched an Orioles’ sweep of the Mariners. “We wanted to win in the ninth for Zach,” Hardy said. “Once we were down, we definitely didn’t give up. That was a big win for us. I know everybody in the lineup wants to go out and score runs for a pitcher who does that. You want to give him the win.”

The Orioles are a fascinating team to watch, the first time anything like that could be said in, oh, about ten years. Their off-season moves included a swap with Minnesota of two relievers for Hardy, the signing of on-his-last-legs Vlad Guerrero to a one year $8 million deal and former North Side Drama Queens first sacker Derek Lee (one year $7.25 million). The Orioles completed the overhaul of their infield by trading for Showboats’ third baseman Mark Reynolds and signed sometime closer Kevin Gregg (for $10 million over two years with an option). The only real head-scratcher in all of that was the trade for Reynolds, a strikeout and long-ball machine who — when he’s not stroking the ball out of the park — can’t hit worth a lick.

But the story of the O’s is their young starting pitching. In addition to Britton, the Birds of Baltimore feature Chris Tillman (don’t laugh, he turned in a long-awaited gem against the Mariners on Thursday), and righty sleeper Jake Arrieta (who’s 4-1 so far this year), to go along with Jeremy Guthrie who, on odd occasions (mostly against Minnesota), pitches like Jim Palmer. Waiting in the wings is uber youngster Brian Matusz, who’s just about to return from a torn intercostal muscle. Matusz’s return will be welcome, as it will nudge struggling wannabe Brad Bergesen back to where he belongs: as a sometime starter who has yet to learn command.

The Orioles could use another pitcher (or two), but a rotation of Guthrie, Britton, Matusz, Arrieta and Tillman not only isn’t bad, it’s damn good. If the Birds can get that done, they’ll be more than halfway to respectability — which hasn’t happened in Birdland for an awfully long time. The only thing left then, will be for Buck Showalter to tell Reynolds there’s a place for him on the pines, counsel Nick “big-hat-no-cattle” Markakis that it’s time to become the star everyone thinks he is, and find a place for Cubs castoff Felix Pie — dumped by the North Side Drama Queens because . . . because that’s what they do. But nevermind, the story (as proved last night by Britton), is that there’s finally a team worth watching in Baltimore, and it’s chock full of young arms.

The book on David Price reads something like this: the 25-year-old has a great fastball and pinpoint accuracy. He’s tough, he’s competitive, he’s a already a superstar. And from time to time, and for absolutely no reason at all, he loses confidence and focus. This usually happens in the 5th or 6th innings. It’s a puzzle. Of course, this complaint is nit-picky; Price was 19-6 last year and one of the dominant pitchers in the American League. He’s Cy Young material. So, no problem. Right? Well, maybe — and maybe not. Price’s habit of losing focus not only makes him merely human, the Tampa Bay brain trust is worried that it could lead to bigger problems.

The nit-picky problem with Price was on full display last night in the Rays’ Opening Day tilt against the Baltimore Orioles. The Fighting Showalters couldn’t do anything with Price through four innings as he moved his fastball (clocked at 98 mph) in and out and up-and-down in the strike zone. But he wasn’t getting the inside corner and, in the 5th inning, he decided he would start moving his fastball out over the plate and rely more on his curve. But here was the problem: the Orioles hadn’t really touched his fastball — so why change? Never mind: Price decided that while he was pitching well, he wasn’t pitching well enough. The perfect became the enemy of the good. In the 5th, as Price was losing his razor short first-four-innings focus, the Orioles touched him for three runs.

The Price story is all over Tampa this morning, with little heed given there to Jeremy Guthrie’s seemingly effortless gem. But it was hardly effortless. After the Orioles put their first win in the books, Guthrie told MASN viewers what they could find out from watching the game: he has mastered his 12-6 curve, a biting overhand offering that set Tampa hitters back on their heels. “We’ve seen Guthrie with that kind of stuff,” O’s catcher Matt Wieters said after the game, “but to be able to do that on Opening Day against a good lineup, that’s pretty special right there.” Guthrie’s triumph is good news for the O’s, who ought to have plenty of hitting, but are a little short on arms. “He was awesome,” said second baseman Brian Roberts said of Guthrie. “I think we believe that Guthrie can beat anybody.” Last night, in a game worth watching, Guthrie was confident and tough. David Price wasn’t.

The MLB Network preview of the Washington Nationals (a part of the 30 teams in 30 days series), repeated a well-known mantra: despite all the attention on Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper and new Nat Jayson Werth, the heart of the franchise has been — and still is — Ryan Zimmerman. This morning’s Washington Post reflected that reality, featuring an Adam Kilgore offering on how much Zimmerman loves the Nats — and how much they need to show that they love him. This isn’t some kind of fantasy: Zimmerman is one of baseball’s elite; his status set is in concrete by five years of solid numbers, including a 2009 campaign in which he hit .292 with 33 home runs.

The Nats need a lot of pieces to contend — another pitcher (or two), better defense up-the-middle, another heavy hitting outfielder — but the simple truth is that the team depends on Zimmerman; it’s possible to finish in last place with him, but it’s impossible to finish anywhere else without him. 2008 might be the best example. The Nats were going to finish in last place that year in any event, but a Zimmerman injury doomed the team to a listless summer — and plummeting attendance figures. Before his departure for Chicago, Adam Dunn was a centerpiece of the Nats, but fans didn’t come to see him play. They came to see Zimmerman. That’ll still be the case this year, even with Jayson Werth in tow.

While Kilgore says there’s no rush to finalize a new Zimmerman contract, there’s little doubt the Mike Rizzo & Company are anxious to keep him in the fold. It’ll be expensive, somewhere in the range of $200 million. But it could be worse. If the Nats don’t focus on signing Zim now, Kilgore says, “he could command closer to $300 million.” That’s a number that would give any owner pause (the owners in St. Louis, for instance), but it’s hard to believe that actually trading Zimmerman before he becomes a free agent would yield equal value. Which means that, beginning in just a few days, Nats fans will not only be treated to the start of another season of baseball, they’ll also be entertained by continuing talk of when and how the front office will begin negotiations with a player who defines the team.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: SI wag Tom Verducci weighs in this week with a number of interesting entries — including Baltimore’s epic struggle to make vunderkind Matt Wieters a better hitter. “His bat is too slow through the zone,” Verducci quotes one major league scout as saying. “It just drags.” Really? This sounds a little like buyers’ remorse. After years of plumping the 6-5 backstop, the Orioles are now worried that he won’t hit like Joe Mauer. Enough already: the Birds spent years with the execrable Ramon Hernandez behind the plate, a guy who looked like he was spending every game learning the position . . . Verducci also entertains us with a dit on the top selling jerseys in the major leagues: Jeter, Mauer, Halladay, Utley, Lee, Pujols, Hamilton, Pedroia, Rodriguez, and Lincecum. Verducci points out that outside of Lincecum, there isn’t a West Coast player in the whole bunch. So, is there an East Coast bias in baseball? Maybe, but I have to believe that if Halladay played for the Dodgers, he’d still be ranked third. We should take this with a pinch of salt: the Dodgers trailed only the Yankees and Red Sox in sales of sport merchandise last year.

You’d have to be nuts not to want Adam Jones on your team: the fleet-footed Baltimore center fielder is young and tough, and fated to play the green expanses of Camden Yards for years to come. So why doesn’t Jones get more respect? The youngster didn’t make MLB Network’s Top 100 players and was virtually ignored by the media in the offseason — at the same time that a mini-boomlet was being engineered for Pittsburgh’s Andrew McCutchen. What a waste. Jones is no slouch: last year (at age 24) he hit .284 with 19 home runs and (arguably) is the key to a revamped Orioles line-up. Say what you will about Mark Reynolds (who comes over from Arizona), J.J. Hardy (shipped out of Minneapolis after an injury plagued year with the Twins), and Derrek Lee (who now mans first base), if the Orioles are to be any good at all, then Jones has to shine. And dollars-to-donuts, our opinion is that Jones is better than any of them.

The Orioles have revamped the left side of their infield, putting strikeout-a-lot Reynolds at third and veteran Hardy at short. With steady Brian Roberts healthy and manning second and former Gold Glove first baseman Lee at first, the Orioles have a solid infield with a potential ton of power at the corners. If Derrek Lee returns to form and Reynolds matches his power output from 2010, the Orioles line-up will give the rest of the A.L. East fits, even if the Yankees and Red Sox fight it out for first — as is expected. Oh, and let’s not forget: the O’s signed Vlad Guerrero to DH, the underrated Luke Scott is still in uniform, back-up journeyman Jake Fox has hit the cover off the ball in Florida, Felix Pie and Nolan Reimold are contending for starting spots, catcher Matt Wieters is greatness-waiting-to-happen, Nick Markakis is a heck of a ballplayer, and Josh Bell can still play. That’s a lot of moving parts, and a lot of potential lumber in the O’s line-up. But . . .

But the key to the O’s success (and to any team’s success for that matter) is their pitching. In Baltimore’s case, it’s shaky. The Orioles staff is young and uncertain — and anyone who watched the team during last year’s first half got an eyeful of mediocre. Let’s see; the starting rotation is all under 25, with vunderkind Brian Matusz (that’s him, below) leading a foursome that includes Chris Tillman. Jake Arrieta and Brad Bergesen. They all have potential, but the Orioles might have tried to sign a steady veteran fifth starter in the off-season. They sure could use one. Joining this crew is late-addition Justin Duchscherer who, if he’s healthy, can be a steady presence. Jeremy Guthrie (11-14, 3.83) is another solid starter, though his name has been bandied about as trade bait. Add southpaw rookie Zach Britton to that mix and the O’s might catch lightening in a bottle. Or not. Of course, then again, the O’s staff (bad as it is) still looks a damn sight better than what Washington has.

Baseball wags are worried that the too-young staff could be victimized by a less-than-average bullpen. The O’s are counting on former North Side Drama Queen head case Kevin Gregg to be the closer and, you never know, he might be able to do the job. The O’s continue to rely on Koji (I don’t have an elbow) Uehara to do something, but I’ll be damned if I know why. “For now they can’t do enough for me to beef up that bullpen,” a baseball executive told the Sporting News in the off-season, “because the worst thing for a young starter’s psyche is to leave the game and not believe the pen’s going to hold your lead.” So there you have it: your Baltimore Orioles. They’re picked for last by nearly everyone, except for us. If they can keep their aging core off the injured list, they’ll be good. At the very least, with Showalter at the helm this year will be more interesting than last, and a damned sight more exciting for O’s fans. Though, in truth, that’s not saying a lot.

If it weren’t so obviously cruel, we’d take this space to re-baptize the Baltimore Birds the “Showalters” — in the belief that the Orioles of the last twenty years would soon reflect the go-get-’em attitude of their new manager. But even Showalter (a veteran of turnarounds in Arizona, New York and Texas), is willing to admit that it will take more than a new manager to turn around the ailing Orioles: it will take good starting pitching, a revamped bullpen, eight fielders who know their business (and can swing a bat) — and a change in attitude that has been sorely lacking in Baltimore for the last two decades. It will take, as Showalter says, little “golden nuggets” that Showalter will sift out of the detritus that has become Baltimore’s soiled nest. “There isn’t anything too complicated about this,” Showalter said at his introductory news conference. Well, he oughta know.

Showalter comes with a reputation for being a “the ultimate baseball perfectionist” with “a militaristic attention to detail.” Not surprisingly, he’s made some enemies. In his first managing job in New York, Showalter did things his way, to the great irritation of owner George Steinbrenner. Worse yet, back in 1995 — when Steinbrenner put enormous pressure on Showalter to win, he did: but not enough for George. Then too, Showalter was getting more attention than “the Boss,” a line that Yankee managers knew they should never cross. And so it was that eventually Showalter resigned — after refusing Steinbrenner’s orders to dismiss two of his coaches. But Buck he didn’t go quietly. In the wake of his resignation, Showalter called Steinbrenner “Fidel” and said that sitting next to him on a team charter was “the worst flight I ever had.” The quotes ended up in the New York Times. Steinbrenner was enraged, though not because Showalter compared him to Castro (he probably liked that), but because he’d gotten the last word. Steinbrenner didn’t know the half of it. When “the boss” died earlier this summer, Showalter praised him, called him a friend, and then paid a compliment — to himself: “I was one of the managers he never fired. I resigned because he wanted to get rid of my coaches. He knew where people’s buttons were, and mine were loyalty to my coaches.” Rest In Peace, George.

The Steinbrenner-Showalter saga is certainly known to Orioles’ owner Peter Angelos (whom Birdland fans blame for the demise of their “once proud franchise”), so it might be considered a testament to Angelos that he would hire Showalter anyway. But Showalter’s enemy’s list (“He never even smelled a jock in the big leagues,” current Pale Hose manager Ozzie Guillen once said. “Mr. Baseball never even got a hit in Triple-A. I was a better player than him, I have more money than him and I’m better looking than him”), is complemented by more than a handful of detractors who claim that “the smartest man in the room” is overrated. These detractors point out that while Showalter is given credit for turning around the last place Arizona Diamondbacks, the real credit (they say), should actually go to D-Backs owner Jerry Colangelo. Colangelo signed Randy Johnson, Todd Stottlemyre and Steve Finley to lead the team into 1999 — and into first place in the N.L. West. But this isn’t damning with faint praise, it’s faint damning with just the right praise: Showalter knew his team wasn’t going to win with Andy Benes, Alan Embree and Devon White and he made that clear to Colangelo in the off-season. The lesson is now clear; not only will Bucky get the last word, he’ll insist that you spend some money. There are worse things.

So all of this is good news, right? Well, not exactly. While Showalter was the choice of Orioles’ owner Peter Angelos, it’s not a secret that team president Andy MacPhail preferred the lower key Eric Wedge. MacPhail might have had a point — one of the reasons that former Texas Rangers’ owner Tom Hicks had problems with Showalter is because of constant complaints that Buck kept the Rangers’ clubhouse in turmoil. As soon as Showalter’s hiring was announced, the inimitable Camden Chat ran a long piece by Rangers’ blogger Adam Morse (of Lone Star Ball), who commented that “Rangers players never knew exactly where they stood with Showalter, and that he preferred it that way . . . he either wanted guys on edge, or just simply wasn’t comfortable communicating directly with the players.” MacPhail wasn’t the only one questioning Angelos’ choice. Just this morning, Orioles icon Rick Dempsey took on both Angelos and Showalter, calling the hiring “the biggest mistake made here in a long time, and I’m not talking just today, I mean over the years.” Roughly translated, what Dempsey means to say is that Angelos should have hired a manager from within. Showalter is an “outsider” — he doesn’t understand Baltimore.

So there they are, the legion of critics who think that Buck Showalter is not the second coming: George Steinbrenner, Tom Hicks, Rick Dempsey and a huge crowd of Baltimore naysayers and former players who think that a manager with “a militaristic attention to detail” and a huge ego will be bad for the Birds. As opposed to? Well, as opposed to Ray Miller, Mike Hargrove, Phil Regan, Lee Mazzilli, Sam Perlozzo and Dave Trembley, men who presumably had no egos and could care less about details — and who led the Baltimore Orioles to precisely two postseason appearances in 27 years. These naysayers ought to listen to Orioles’ commentator Drew Forrester, one of a legion of sports gabbers that we (we here at CFG) never pay attention to. Except in this case: “This is the Orioles,” Forrester writes. “And we have about 4 players who can play. And maybe two pitchers. And a couple of other live arms that need some tutoring. Of the 25 guys on the roster right now, I can think of six I’d take on my team. I hope Showalter comes in, stomps his feet and demands better players from Angelos and MacPhail. I hope he’s a prick to deal with in the Warehouse and I hope he threatens to fight people if the roster isn’t improved and quality free agents aren’t pursued.”

Yeah, that’s right. So while Showalter has a controversial background and knows how to make enemies, he also has a history of winning. Which is hell of a lot more than you can say for either Peter Angelos or Andy MacPhail.