If the Orioles needed any suggestions on how to start a season where the operative word is Hope, they only have to look down I-95 last night where the Nationals opened their season and inaugurated their new ballpark with a 3-2 win over Atlanta with a bottom-of-the-ninth home run by 23-year-old Ryan Zimmerman (right).

Like the Orioles, the Nationals won't be contending for a World Series this season. Returning to those wagering odds, the Nats are 150-to-1 to win the Series and also like the Orioles, Washington is contending with divisional opponents that have a big head start, the Mets, the Phillies and even the Braves, last night's foils.

And even in victory, some of the the Nationals' weaknesses were pretty apparemt. After jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, Washington went 24 batters without reaching base. The Nats failed to hold a one-run lead in the ninth allowing the Braves to tie, 2-2, on a passed ball. Only Zimmerman's two-out blast kept the ballpark's opener from a stain that would have been been recalled over and over as a harbinger of future defeats.

Instead, that first game ever in the Nationals' new home can be a reference point of, here's that word again -- Hope.

And it can be that because Zimmerman did save the day and for this day, at least for several hours, Washington fans can look in the newspaper or online and see this -- their team is in first place.

Photo credit: Evan Vucci/AP