Good morning from Viera -- quick turnaround from last night's exhibition opener in Jupiter, a 3-3 tie against the Marlins. The Nats make their Space Coast Stadium debut today against Georgetown at the unusual starting time of 11:30 a.m. Tickets are free to the public, so if anyone's in town and wants to watch some baseball, come on out.
Those who do attend the game will actually get to see some legitimate major leaguers. Manny Acta is fielding a competitive lineup, which I'm sure is a thrill to the Hoyas players who arrived at the ballpark a little while ago with wide eyes. Give credit to Mike Shapiro, the Nationals' senior VP of business affairs, who played in college at Georgetown and helped arrange for today's game.
OK, here's the Nats' starting lineup:
CF Roger Bernadina
2B Ronnie Belliard
3B Ryan Zimmerman
DH Dmitri Young
RF Austin Kearns
LF Garrett Guzman
C Jesus Flores
1B Matt Whitney
SS Ian Desmond
P Jason Bergmann
Josh Smoker, one of last year's first-round draft picks, will pitch after Bergmann. Interested to see how the 19-year-old lefty handles the situation.
We'll have some in-game updates for you along the way.