The Baltimore Orioles have announced their opening day lineup. Here is the tweet from Orioles beat reporter Brittany Ghiroli with the lineup.
#Orioles Opening Day lineup Markakis RF, Machado 3B, Jones CF, Wieters CA,Davis 1B, Hardy SS, Reimold LF, Pearce DH, Roberts 2B, Hammel SP
— Brittany Ghiroli (@Britt_Ghiroli) April 1, 2013
No real surprises, Nick Markakis is leading off like he did successfully last season. Manny Machado is the Orioles young stud and is batting second protected by the Orioles best overall hitter Adam Jones. Matt Wieters the Orioles catcher is the cleanup batter and Chris Davis who is probably the best pure power hitter for the Orioles is batting fifth.
J.J. hardy who was the Orioles number two hitter most of last season has been moved down to the number sixth spot and Nolan Reimold is in left field batting seventh. Steve Pearce who was one of the last players to make the team is at the eight spot. Brian Roberts who has been a lead off hitter almost his entire career is batting ninth, which means he can be a jump-starter at the bottom of the order.
Every player in this lineup has home run power. Nate McLouth will start the game on the bench and will probably be used in the game as a defensive sub for Reimold late in the game. McLouth and Reimold are expected to share left field this season.
