Desmond was a big hit with the kids. He taught them how to field infield grounders and they practiced throwing to various bases. They also practiced flipping short double plays.

One child made a barehanded grab and fired a laser to first base. Desmond reacted by humming the theme to Sports Center and telling the youngster that he made a web gem play. The child was just as elated as Desmond.

"You can see it on their faces. They are excited to see me and everything that I say, they are absorbing. There is no better feeling in the world than that," Desmond said.

The Nationals launched their partnership with Prince George's County and the Maryland National-Capital Park And Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) during the Winter Caravan earlier this year. Prince George's County was also the recipient of the 2010 Baseball Equipment Drive to be held at Nationals Park.

The partnership aims to teach baseball to area youth, especially disadvantaged and minority youth, while encouraging healthy lifestyles.

"We are very excited to have Ian Desmond out here with the kids from Prince George's County," said Steven Carter of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. "He was very interactive and it's good to have a Major League Baseball player like that giving back to the community."

One participant, seven year old Ryan, really learned a lot from the experience.

"I was excited that he came here to see us. When he told us how to do stuff, I was thinking I could try that in my backyard," he said.

As a youngster himself, Desmond attended clinics with big leaguers and to this day, he still remembers the advice they gave him back then. Of course, Desmond passed that advice to the children this morning.

"You go hard every day, no matter what...and every pitch, every game, every at bat, every play, you gotta pay attention. You want to be good in life or in baseball, you gotta go hard and you gotta pay attention," Desmond said.

Oh, and obviously, you must have fun.

"That's basically what I do now to this day. I go out there and play as hard as I can and make sure every day is fun," Desmond added.

More pictures are available on MASN's Facebook page.

Don't look now but the pitcher some O's fans seem to be most critical of, has put together a real good stretch of pitching.

Matt Albers has pitched to an ERA of 1.93 in 10 games this month with a batting average against of .185 in 18 2/3 innings in July.

"I think, just being able to throw my curveball and slider early in the count for strikes has helped a lot. I usually throw a lot of fastballs and some guys were sitting on it and I was getting beat with that. Also, you just get on a roll and feel more comfortable out there. Not trying to do too much, just let my stuff take over," Albers said.

Albers is 3-3, 4.30 in 42 games on the year and that ERA is the lowest it has been since April 12.

Albers' season ended early in 2008 due to a torn labrum. He opted to rehab it and not have surgery and he returned to pitch last season.

He says his right shoulder has felt healthy and strong for a while now.

"I felt that in the beginning of the season. Coming into spring training my arm felt strong. That's been nice.

"Maybe a little," he said when asked if his shoulder feels better now than it did last year. "That's the first real injury I had, so it's always in the back of your head. You think, if I throw a pitch am I going to feel it. You get to the point in the season where I got hurt two years ago, are you able to make it past that. Once I got through last season, I knew I would be fine this year and came in with more peace of mind."

Albers feels he is throwing the ball now about as well as he did in 2008, when he went 3-3, 3.49 for the Orioles before coming up with the shoulder injury in late June that ended his season.

For now, he's become a reliable reliever that the team can count on. Don't think too many fans would have figured that could happen this year.

"At this point, I would believe not," he said.

I'll check back with him later this afternoon.

Now, back to your original entry, already in progress:

The 4 p.m. non-waiver trade deadline is bearing down on us, and I passed up a chance to accompany my parents and the birthday girl to the beach this morning because I need to make phone calls and remain close to my laptop in case the Orioles swing another deal. I would have been an oily ball of stress sitting by the ocean, so I chose to stay back at the house.

How truly pathetic.

Anyway, I'm not anticipating a second trade unfolding, but the Orioles supposedly weren't close to consummating a deal late Thursday morning and you know what happened.

The market for Ty Wigginton is diminishing, but someone could step up with a suitable offer. It'll have to be a good one, because the Orioles aren't looking to unload him and clear room for another first baseman. He still serves a purpose here, and MacPhail won't dump him for a low-level prospect.

You could argue that Wigginton should be re-signed over the winter as insurance in case the Orioles don't upgrade at first base or Josh Bell isn't ready to take over third. He could be a backup corner infielder with pop from the right side - his original role heading into the season - though he'll want a starting job somewhere in 2011.

A guy like Will Ohman could clear waivers next month and be dealt before the Aug. 31 deadline for teams to finalize their playoff rosters.

You can't trade Jeremy Guthrie when he's currently the only starting pitcher who clears five innings.

I guess contenders don't view Cesar Izturis as an impact shortstop. He, too, figured to be a pretty good trade candidate earlier this summer.

Michael Gonzalez's ERA is down to 6.14 after another scoreless outing last night, though it lasted only two-thirds of an inning. Interim manager Juan Samuel played matchups and called upon Koji Uehara to face Jason Kendall with two outs in the eighth, and the Royals' catcher flied to left.

I questioned the move at the time - for the record, so did my mother, and we were the only two people in the room still awake - but it worked out.

You know how I hate the constant calls to the bullpen. And Gonzalez was originally signed to be the closer and face hitters from both sides of the plate. Now we're matching up?

Anyway, Samuel's move paid off, but Alfredo Simon blew the save in the ninth after retiring the first two batters. Once again, a walk came back to haunt the Orioles, this one to Rick Ankiel that started the rally. Wilson Betemit grounded a single to right and Alex Gordon - now batting .183 - hit a three-run homer to right.

Game over.

Simon's pitch to Gordon was fatter than Sidney Ponson after another slice of cheesecake. (That's three.)

Incoming manager Buck Showalter will be evaluating this club over the last two months, and not from the ESPN studios. He'll have a closer view of his closer, and everybody else on the roster.

Should Simon be the ninth-inning specialist in 2011, or can the Orioles upgrade - perhaps going back to Gonzalez if Showalter deems him worthy?

Will Showalter be comfortable projecting the young starters in next year's rotation, or will he question whether one or more have been over-hyped? Will he be comfortable running them out there until the season ends, no matter the results? Will he be comfortable adding Zach Britton and, perhaps, further taxing his bullpen?

Will he want to rope off left field and pretend it doesn't exist, since nobody seems capable of playing the position or just picking up a ball cleanly?

Will he have a different opinion of Adam Jones in center field?

Will he consider Luke Scott as a viable option at first base next season? Will he give Scott enough starts there to form an educated opinion?

Will the roster that he inherits on Monday look exactly like this one?

That's the assumption, but we'll know by 4 p.m.

Lastings Milledge and Joel Hanrahan were on the outs in Washington last year, and Rizzo was trying to get something of value for them. Easy; the Pirates were willing to offer the leadoff hitter Rizzo needed (Nyjer Morgan) and the lefty reliever he preferred (Sean Burnett). Ronnie Belliard to the Dodgers was a cinch, too; get something of value for a player who's a month from being a free agent.

Even the two trades Rizzo made this week were easy strategic choices. Matt Capps was going to hit arbitration after the year, and get a big raise, while Cristian Guzman's tenure in Washington was going to be over in two months. Might as well get value for them now.

But the decision Rizzo faces today - and really, the one he's been staring down for the better part of the season - doesn't have an easy answer. What happens today will set some direction, one way or the other, for the future of the franchise. And it will give us a glimpse of where Rizzo's taking things.

The GM has had somewhere around a half-dozen teams throwing prospects at his feet all month in offers for first baseman Adam Dunn, who will be a free agent after the season. We all know the route that got the Nationals to this point: A fan asked Rizzo at a January season-ticketholder luncheon about signing Dunn to a contract, Dunn facetiously stood up, led his own round of applause and stared down owner Mark Lerner, Rizzo said he'd been talking to Dunn's agent already and off we went.

Since then, though, nothing has happened; Rizzo and Dunn's agent, Greg Genske, have talked back and forth about a deal, but the Nationals have rebuffed any attempts to put a deadline on the negotiations, with a team source saying earlier this season that the Nationals are completely comfortable waiting to sign Dunn until after the season if need be.

If Rizzo sticks with that course of action today, it will mean turning down any number of offers for Dunn and gambling on the success of negotiations that haven't reached both sides' desired end for six months. If he trades Dunn for the highest bid, shipping off the contract decision to another team, he'll take one of the game's most potent power hitters out of his lineup at a time when homers are at a premium and the Nationals are silently hoping their pitching staff is good enough to make them competitive in 2011. There's also the matter of what Ryan Zimmerman, the face of the franchise, a friend of Dunn's, a beneficiary of his presence in the lineup and - most importantly - a free agent in three years, would think of all this.

Even the offseason escape hatch offers no guarantees; sources say the Nationals believe they could always get a pair of picks for Dunn by offering him arbitration, but they run the risk of Dunn accepting, playing next season for $15 million and putting the Nationals right back in this spot next July. Dunn has stated his preference for a long-term deal, and would seemingly have no better chance to cash in than this winter's free agent market, but he also wants to stay in Washington.

Rizzo sounded resolute when talking to reporters yesterday, saying he wouldn't move Dunn unless a team met his admittedly exorbitant price and adding that his stance wouldn't change before the deadline. It could've been posturing, but it was consistent with everything that's been coming from the Nationals camp all season, and it came from a man who's made his way in baseball with blunt honesty.

So the clock ticks closer to today's 4 p.m. deadline, and Rizzo's choices are clear: Trade Dunn for the best offer out there, sign him to an extension today or do nothing, betting on either successful negotiations down the road or the protections of the draft-pick compensation system.

The right choice is not clear. And that's where Rizzo, perhaps for the first time as the Nationals' GM, will have to show his mettle.

He appeared on his way to one Friday. A save. A shaky one.

But it turned into a loss and blown save.

Alex Gordon hit a two-out, three-run homer in the last of the ninth as KC stunned the O's 7-5 at Kauffman Stadium.

Simon came on to preserve a 5-4 lead and the got the first two batters out in the ninth. Then, he walked Rick Ankiel and Wilson Betamit singled. Gordon, who began the night hitting just .182, came up.

He crushed a 1-0 pitch, on a 95 mile per hour fastball, over the right-field wall for the walk-off win, ending KC's five-game losing streak.

The Orioles were behind 3-0 after the first inning and later, came to bat in the eighth, down 4-3.

But Nick Markakis led off the inning with a single off Kyle Farnsworth and scored the tie run on a Ty Wigginton double. Wigginton later scored the go-ahead run on an error by Royals' third baseman Wilson Betamit.

Markakis and Wigginton went a combined 5 for 8 in the game with four runs scored and two RBI. Wigginton went 3 for 4 with a pair of doubles and both RBI. He has 4 RBI in the first two games of this series.

O's starter Jake Arrieta did not get a decision. After he allowed the runs in the first, he got out of some jams and pitched into the fifth. He gave up three runs over 4 1/3, throwing 102 pitches and now has an ERA of 5.47.

Over his last three starts, Arrieta has pitched 13 2/3 to an ERA of 8.56.

The Orioles are now 1-4 on this road trip and 3-12 since the All-Star break. They fall to 32-71 on the year.

Tonight, they went 1 for 10 at bat with runners in scoring position and the O's are just 2 for 35 with RISP over the last five games and 4 for 49 (.082) over the last seven contests.

In game three of this series, Saturday at 7:10, it's Brad Bergesen (3-9, 6.95) vs. Zach Greinke (6-10, 4.01).

Update: Berken's off the hook. Ty Wigginton doubled to tie the game in the eighth, and he scored on Wilson Betemit's error to give the Orioles a 5-4 lead.

Berken was making his first appearance since July 24, and his second since July 21, as interim manager Juan Samuel tries to ease up on him. After carrying a heavy workload in the first half, Berken has allowed seven runs and 13 hits in five games covering 7 1/3 innings.

In case you missed it, Miguel Tejada is batting fourth and playing shortstop tonight for the Padres. He walked in his first at-bat.

Pitcher Wynn Pelzer, acquired by the Orioles in the Tejada trade, gave up a bases-empty home run and two hits in two innings tonight with Double-A Bowie, with no walks and three strikeouts. He's credited with a "hold" in the Baysox's 8-5 victory over New Britain.

Even the first pitch, the most anticipated ceremonial throw at Nationals Park since the opener, sailed to about the same spot - high and into the right-handed batter's box.

Call it Opening Day Lite, Friday's game against the Phillies that had so many of the same parameters as the Nationals' 11-1 embarrassment during the first game of the season. Friday was the first time sine that night the Nationals had faced the Phillies at home, and with Roy Oswalt making his Philadelphia debut, the potential for another thrashing was looming.

And there was a thrashing. It was just the Phillies on the receiving end of it.

Instead of John Lannan getting hit around while Roy Halladay shut the Nationals down, Craig Stammen ended his own futile stretch against the Phillies with 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball. The Nationals scored five runs in six innings on Oswalt. And in the Nationals' 8-1 win, it was the Phillies making the bone-headed mistakes.

Carlos Ruiz threw to third base on Adam Kennedy's third-inning bunt single...only to see there was nobody covering the base. Stammen scored easily. In the top of that inning, the Nationals recorded a 9-3 putout on Oswalt, with Adam Dunn loitering off the first-base bag long enough to make Oswalt think he had an easy single.

By the seventh inning , the pro-Phillies contingent of the 32,590 in attendance was headed for the exits. The Nationals fans were the ones staying and cheering at the end.

"You definitely want to hear your team being shouted (for) rather than the Phillies," Stammen said. "For the most part, they were a little quieter today, and that's a good thing, especially in our stadium."

After a 3-7 road trip, the Nationals have now won three of four at home against the top two teams in the NL East.

Stammen, who was coming off a five-inning, three-run outing in Milwaukee that he thought was better than the results showed, got bumped back a day like the rest of the Nationals' pitching staff with Scott Olsen pitching on Thursday. That meant he went from facing the Braves, who he beat with one of his best outings of the year in June, to the Phillies, against whom he had made two starts totaling a combined 6 1/3 innings this year.

His first thought when he found out he was facing the Phillies? "I owed them one," Stammen said.

He did on Friday, striking out five and allowing five hits in 6 1/3 innings. Aside from the homer he gave up to Jayson Werth, Stammen was nearly flawless, locating his fastball and getting nine groundouts in six innings.

"I think he's actually thrown the ball well, and in a lot of games, he's pitched well," manager Jim Riggleman said. "It's a good time for it to come together for him, and hopefully he'll continue this."

The offense stomped out a total of 11 hits, getting its top two batters on base six times in 10 plate appearances. And the Phillies' mishaps just added a little fun in a matchup that hasn't brought much of it to the Nationals.

"Whenever they make (mistakes) like that, you've got to take advantage of that," said outfielder Roger Bernadina, who had a pair of doubles and two RBI. "Today, it worked out for us."

He's lending a hand with some Orioles minor leaguers and was also recently seen observing the Orioles from a press box suite at Camden Yards.

"B.J. has been kind enough to do some consulting on some player development issues," O's director of player development, John Stockstill said.

Surhoff was at Bowie last night and is there again tonight.

Surhoff played the game with a lot of passion and intensity and you would think any young player could pick up some pointers from him.

In other minor league developments, catcher Caleb Joseph, who has been on Bowie's disabled list with an injured right shoulder since July 24, should be activated sometime around the middle of next week.

Pitcher Wynn Pelzer, who the O's acquired in the Miguel Tejada trade, reported to Bowie tonight and is likely to pitch in tonight's game with New Britain.

Brandon Erbe, who was scratched from a recent injury rehab start with Aberdeen due to recurring shoulder soreness, should be back on a mound soon.

The O's are hoping he will soon make another start for Aberdeen.

By the way, with Josh Bell now with the Orioles, Brandon Snyder is playing third base and Nolan Reimold first base tonight for Norfolk. It's no position change for Snyder, but he could make several more starts at third.

Compared to where he was, he should be.

Ramos goes from Minnesota, where he would have been perpetually blocked by Joe Mauer, to a team that should offer him a good chance to start.

"I think I did a really good job with the Twins. It's not my decision. Minnesota needed a pitcher (when I was sent down), and I was blocked by Joe Mauer."

General manager Mike Rizzo said Ramos, who was in the majors for a week this year when Mauer was hurt, would be a September call-up "at least." From there, he'll probably compete for a spot on the roster next spring.

In fact, Rizzo talked on Friday afternoon like he was surprised the Twins would part with him.

"We don't make any excuses for (the deal). He started off slow, got sidetracked and went to the big leagues (with the Twins) and performed well up in the big leagues and then came back down," Rizzo said. "We feel we have no real explanation for it. But we've scouted him for years and we see big time upside as not only an offensive catcher, but as a defensive catcher too."

If Ramos is on the Opening Day roster in 2011, he'll likely be sharing time with Ivan Rodriguez, who Ramos said was one of his favorite players when he was growing up in Venezuela.

"I'm really excited to play with him," Ramos said. "I want to learn with him. He's got 12, 13 Gold Gloves."

For now, Ramos will go to Triple-A Syracuse for a month, at most. His future in the big leagues with the team isn't far away.

Batista urged Miss Iowa to take a few steps toward home plate, instead of throwing from the mound. He also encouraged her to throw high to avoid bouncing the pitch. She listened. It was high and a little outside, but Batista managed to snag it.

One of the most anticipated ceremonial pitches of the season, the event ended the lighthearted feud which began on Tuesday evening when Batista, filling in for Stephen Strasburg, compared himself to Connors.

It's been a whirlwind week for Connors, who received a lot of media attention for taking the whole thing in stride.

"I take it as a joke," she said, while laughing. "We have to admit that we're from Iowa and sometimes we get a bad rap. There are a few people in Iowa who said, 'you need to go to D.C. and show that man what's up' but most people just take it as a joke, just like me."

A self-described tomboy, Connors is a Cubs fan who grew up attending Des Moines Cubs Triple-A games. Batista played for that team back in 1997, but Connors was only seven years old.

Since the incident, Batista sent her flowers to apologize. He was also invited to judge the Miss Iowa competition in October of this year.

"We both didn't know this was going to blow up as much as it has," she said. "We were joking around that when people say Miss Iowa, we look around like 'Me, Miss Iowa or him, Miss Iowa?'"

After the pitch, Batista introduced Connors to Miss Universe (Stephen Strasburg).

With less than 24 hours to go before the trade deadline, Dunn's status changes by the minute. He could be headed to Chicago, New York, Tampa Bay, San Francisco or some other locale by tomorrow, or he could be celebrating a new contract with the Nationals (though that seems less likely).

Or, Dunn could be doing exactly what he's doing today, suiting up for the Nationals with no better idea of where he's going to play next season than he has today.

His best option at this point for dealing with all of it seems to be indifference.

You just get tired of hearing it. You can't even watch TV. I don't know how else to put it," Dunn said. "It probably would affect other people more than it does me. It doesn't, because my options are awesome. I can't have better options that what I have."

Meeting with about a dozen reporters in front of his locker on Friday afternoon, Dunn sounded more open to the idea of DHing for an American League team, because, as he said, it's just for two months. "It's not like if I make this move, it's career-ending."

Dunn's agent, Greg Genske, has talked to general manager Mike Rizzo at various points throughout the season about a contract extension, but the two sides have not made appreciable progress, which is why the free agent-to-be might be the hottest name on the trade market.

The first baseman admitted on Friday it was a bit of a letdown that negotiations hadn't gotten any further.

"I would say (I'm) frustrated more than disappointed," Dunn said. "I know it's the business side of it. But I really did expect to get something done and at least make a little progress. Just hasn't worked out that. It's no fault for anyone. It's how it goes, man."

Rizzo said the Nationals' price for Dunn won't come down from where it's been; he's said all month that a deal for Dunn would be "painful" for any team that wanted him. He said there are a number of teams that still have interest in Dunn; the Rays have had a scout here all week. But the Nationals haven't found a trade that would be palatable, and Rizzo had little interest in giving any ground to make that happen.

"The closer to the deadline it gets, more pressure is on the teams to come with something that makes sense for me to trade one of the best offensive players in baseball," Rizzo said. "I will come to the price where I originally said I'm going to go, or I won't trade him."

He would not comment on negotiations for a contract extension with Dunn, but Dunn said he imagined the two sides would keep negotiating a deal if he isn't traded by the deadline. And his thoughts there, like several others on Friday, were tinged with exasperation.

"I wanted to get it done as early as possible, and that hasn't worked out. It's not going to change," Dunn said.

But when the two met at NatsFest in January, that possibility turned into a non-issue.

"I was kind of like, 'I wonder how this is going to be,' but he really treated me so well from the beginning," Storen said. "Instead of kind of pushing me away, he took me under his wing and really showed me the ropes."

Capps took Storen out to eat throughout the spring in Viera, Fla., talking baseball with the rookie and sharing tips on adjusting to life in the majors. He helped Storen move into his condo in Florida - "just little things you don't expect a guy of that caliber to do," Storen said.

When Capps was traded to the Twins last night, Storen texted him to wish him luck, but to express gratitude as much as anything.

"He understood it all," Storen said. "He was kind of the polar opposite of what you'd think in that situation. That's why I really appreciated what he did."

But this is still a business, and part of the reason Capps became expendable, after all, was because Storen has stepped so smoothly into the majors. He has a 2.64 ERA in 29 appearances this season, and 26 strikeouts in 30 2/3 innings. He won't become the Nationals' outright closer right away, sharing the job with a group of relievers that includes Tyler Clippard, Sean Burnett and Joel Peralta.

Storen hopes to take the job over eventually, but said that can happen through "a natural process."

"We've got enough arms down there right now that other guys can fill in with that role," Storen said. "That's one thing I'm going to work toward, is to be accountable late in the game."

The Nationals have traded infielder Cristian Guzman to the Texas Rangers for prospects, parting ways with their longest-tenured player a day before the trade deadline, two team sources confirmed.

Guzman, who will be a free agent after the season, was hitting .282 with a .327 on-base percentage in 89 games for the Nationals this season. He'd lost his starting shortstop job to Ian Desmond this spring, and was playing both shortstop and second base for the Nationals this year.

A source close to Guzman said the Rangers and several other teams inquired about the infielder earlier in the month. But Guzman, who has 10-and-5 rights, was just asked today if he would permit a trade, which the source said he will do.

"They agreed it was time for him to do something else," the source said.

The trade will not be official until tomorrow, since Guzman has 24 hours to officially accept his trade in light of his 10-and-5 rights. But Guzman was gone from the Nationals clubhouse, and without confirming the deal, manager Jim Riggleman said the Nationals will play with 24 men tonight.

Adam Kennedy and Alberto Gonzalez will be the biggest beneficiaries of the move; Riggleman said both will get more playing time, and the Nationals will not need to add another middle infielder.

The diminutive reliever, who stands just 5-foot-9, had a 3.55 ERA and 1.322 WHIP in 40 innings this year. He'll likely be used in middle relief as the rest of the Nationals bullpen takes on larger roles.