Orioles have team meeting

5/24/2008 4:46 PM

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -Baltimore Orioles manager Dave Trembley held a team meeting and revamped his starting lineup Saturday in an attempt to increase his team's offensive production.

Baltimore had been shut out twice and scored just one run its previous three games entering Saturday night's contest against Tampa Bay. The pregame meeting lasted around 10 minutes.

``We've been in position to win a lot of games, but we haven't won because things haven't worked out for us,'' Trembley said. ``Eventually, those things will turn in our favor. Just keep doing what you can do to help the club. There was a few other reminders of how we do things here. Our thought process is: We're going to be in this thing through the season. We're going to play hard, and compete and get better.''

Second baseman Brian Roberts, right fielder Nick Markakis and catcher Ramon Hernandez were given a ``mental day'' off by Trembley. Freddie Bynum replaced Roberts in the leadoff spot, while Jay Payton started in right and Guillermo Quiroz was the catcher.

``Sometimes you've just got to mix it up, and that's all I'm doing,'' Trembley said. ``It's never any one thing, it's never one guy. It's a combination of things. You're not scoring runs with some of the guys that you normally rely on. I just don't think it's wise to keep pushing guys to the wall and putting them in situations when they're struggling.''

Roberts, Hernandez and Markakis were expected to be back in the lineup Sunday.