It's Monday morning and the Nationals are currently working on situational fielding drills here at Space Coast Stadium. The Detroit Tigers, with ace Justin Verlander, will be arriving shortly for this afternoon's game, and there is a bit of news to report ...

But first, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the big event happening late tonight/early tomorrow morning here in the area: the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavor at the Kennedy Space Center. It's set to liftoff at 2:28 a.m., kind of an odd time, but I'm going to trust the rocket scientists over at NASA over myself when it comes to these things. According to the latest info on NASA's website, there's a 90 percent chance of liftoff as scheduled, with little reason to worry about weather problems.

My hotel here is actually only about five miles from the launch site, and I'm told you can see, hear and feel the launches with no difficulty. The toughest part is just going to be waking up to see it and then going to back to sleep, but I'm not too worried. I've been gearing up for this for a while (yes, I'm a bit of a closet space geek).

OK, but onto some actual baseball news ... Paul Lo Duca is taking full batting practice today for the first time, has been catching bullpen sessions and remains confident he'll be able to start playing games by the 15th (which would be Saturday). Meanwhile, his backup Johnny Estrada is playing catch today, the first step toward him returning from an elbow injury. Dmitri Young is playing in the field in the accelerated minor-league game this morning and expects to be in the lineup of the big-league game on Thursday.

Another round of cuts is coming after the game today. We'll keep you posted once we get names...

The Nats' lineup against Verlander and the Tigers:
SS Cristian Guzman
2B Ronnie Belliard
CF Lastings Milledge
RF Austin Kearns
LF Wily Mo Pena
1B Luis Jimenez
DH Aaron Boone
3B Willie Harris
C Wil Nieves
P John Lannan