Nationals Park

7:05 p.m., Nationals Park, Washington. TV: Comcast SportsNet. Radio: WPHT (1210-AM), WUBA (1480) Spanish. Pitching matchup: RHP Roy Oswalt (5-7, 3.84) at RHP Livan Hernandez (7-11, 4.21) OSWALT vs. NATIONALS: Oswalt looked a lot like his old self last weekend in an 11-3 win over the Nationals. He allowed three runs on six hits in seven innings and struck out five - his most K's since June 12. This will be Oswalt's third start since a layoff of 5-plus weeks due to bulging disks in his back.

HARRISBURG - A leading environmental group has written to the National Park Service alleging that Pennsylvania is violating federal law by allowing natural gas drilling activity on protected state lands. The Sierra Club says the state should halt all drilling and permitting in state parks and forests until it complies with review requirements under a federal law that dates to the mid-1960s, the Land and Water Conservation Act. "Our attorneys have reviewed documentation provided by the state and come to the conclusion that it is not complying with the Land and Water Act," said Jeff Schmidt, executive director of the Sierra Club's Pennsylvania chapter.

As far as ballparks to make his new home, Jayson Werth selected a pretty good one in Nationals Park. Werth is a career .307 hitter there, with six homers and 13 RBI in 25 games. This past season, he hit .419, with two homers and six RBI in eight games. Among those teams that have to face Werth often is the Phillies, now that he remains in the National League East. "We'll get him out a lot. That's what I think," Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said. "I believe that we will.

Phillies fans took over Nationals Park for the season opener, with seemingly more Phillies fans than Washington fans in the sold-out stadium. The rooting interest of the crowd was not lost on the players on either team. That could be the case again with the Phillies beginning a three-game series in Washington tonight with a chance to wrap up their fourth consecutive NL East title. As of yesterday, plenty of good seats were still available, Nationals spokesman John Dever said.

People wishing to hand out leaflets or loudly speak their mind on religion, immigration or the death penalty at Independence National Historical Park or any other national-park site will have an easier time doing so based on a recent court decision. The ruling would allow small groups and individuals the right to spontaneously express themselves - whether by distributing pamphlets on God, lecturing on global warming or holding antiwar protest signs - at any of the 392 National Park Service sites without having to get a permit.

The popular public archaeology lab at Independence National Historical Park, forced from its longtime home at Third and Chestnut Streets by a land deal undertaken by the park and a private group, will not reopen in its new quarters for up to two years, park officials said this week. When they closed it in June, the officials predicted a late-summer reopening for the lab, which is analyzing about one million artifacts unearthed in the park a decade ago. Although the move from the old park visitors' center to the First Bank of the United States building directly across the street has been contemplated for almost a year, park officials said they belatedly determined that the bank's electrical and cooling facilities were inadequate.

WASHINGTON - A horde of TV cameras surrounded Nationals righthander Miguel Batista and Miss Iowa an hour before Friday's game. Later, the guest of honor threw out the first pitch. Wait. Miss Iowa? To explain, we must go back to Tuesday. That's when Batista emerged from the Nationals' bullpen, prompting boos from the sellout crowd at Nationals Park. They came to see phenom Stephen Strasburg. But he was scratched with shoulder tightness and later placed on the disabled list. Of course, Batista didn't allow a run in five innings against the Braves to earn his first victory of the season.

WASHINGTON - The mother of all baseball hype ended Tuesday night at Nationals Park when Stephen Strasburg's big-league career began in front of a rare capacity crowd in the nation's capital. The 21-year-old righthander made a rapid ascent through the Washington Nationals' minor-league system this spring, and he was every bit as good as advertised. Throwing a fastball that topped out in triple digits on the radar gun, a curveball that buckled knees and induced hideous swings, and a 91-m.

The struggle between the forces of development and preservation here on the ground where the nation's most famous battle was fought is almost as old as the conflict itself. Efforts to capture visitors' dollars date to shortly after the 1863 battle, when souvenir hunters and relatives of missing soldiers arrived. Today, amid heightened efforts to protect vulnerable parts of the battlefield and restore other areas to their original condition, preservationists see a new threat on the horizon: a proposal to put a resort casino in an aging conference center a half-mile south of the Civil War battlefield on the storied Emmitsburg Road.