Before Wednesday's game against the Red Sox, the Orioles and the office of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced a partnership, which is raising funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and Ronald McDonald House Charities in the fight against pediatric cancer. The O's fundraiser coincides with Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
Hogan is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment to fight non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Hogan, along with children fighting cancer and representing both the Leukemia...
PHILADELPHIA - The Nationals took advantage of a walk and a Phillies error to plate the game's first run in the second.
Phillies right-hander Alec Asher walked Jayson Werth to start the frame. Clint Robinson then smoked a liner off first baseman Darin Ruf for a single. Ian Desmond followed with a bouncing ball to third baseman Chase d'Arnaud, but Ruf muffed the throw to first, leaving the bases loaded.
Jose Lobaton lifted a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Werth from third.
Update: Werth...
PHILADELPHIA - Left-hander Gio Gonzalez takes the hill tonight in search of his 11th win of the season. Gonzalez, who went 10-10 in 27 starts last year, is looking to finish strong after struggling in August. The Nationals lost five of Gonzalez's six starts last month, while the lefty's ERA ballooned to 5.46.
Gonzalez has regained his form over his first two September outings, going 1-0 with a 0.79 ERA.
The Phillies counter with rookie right-hander Alec Asher, who has dropped his first three...
PHILADELPHIA - Nationals right fielder Bryce Harper offered high praise for manager Matt Williams following last night's 4-0 win over the Phillies.
"Truly, I love him as a manager," Harper said. "Flat out, I absolutely do and if I didn't, everybody would know because I'm not shy to say things. Just being able to have the fire, the intensity that he has and the way he approaches every single day. He wants us to be perfect and I love that as a manager."
Before tonight's game, Williams...
PHILADELPHIA - Bryce Harper continues his conquest for National League Most Valuable Player honors in tonight's series finale against the Phillies. The Nationals slugger is coming off a 3-for-3 two-homer performance on Tuesday in which he drove in all four runs in the 4-0 victory.
Harper's 39 homers ties him for most in the NL and places him second all-time for longballs in a Nationals single season, trailing Alfonso Soriano's 46 taters in 2006.
Harper's .338 batting average, .467 on-base...
Many people are simply accepting the presumption that the Orioles aren't going to make the postseason in 2015. At this point, you have no choice but to admit that the season is certainly trending that way. However, one thing I try to convey in my columns each day is that until the team is mathematically eliminated, there's still hope.
People try to tell me that I'm naive for not accepting reality. Maybe it comes off as cliché to consistently say that the team still has a chance. But I see...
Coming into Tuesday evening's game against the Red Sox, the Orioles had eight walk-off victories on the season. Two of them had come a la Chris Davis walk-off homer.
The first came exactly a month ago before last evening's game, a huge home run to lift the O's past the A's with a 4-3 victory, giving the Birds their second straight walk-off win.
Then, on Sept. 2, the Orioles were battling the Rays in extra innings. In the 11th, Davis worked into a 3-0 count before deposting in the ball...
PHILADELPHIA - Add another file to the what-if folder after right-hander Stephen Strasburg completely handcuffed the Phillies, allowing only one hit while matching his career-high with 14 strikeouts in last night's 4-0 shutout win for the Nationals.
The lone hit of the night was a sharp grounder through the hole into right field to start the fifth off the bat of Cody Asche. Strasburg's only other blemish was a walk to Freddy Galvis in the first.
"Really good," Nationals manager Matt...
PHILADELPHIA - In a season filled with extraordinary moments, Bryce Harper carried an epic performance on the field into the clubhouse, fully endorsing the much-maligned Matt Williams as the Nationals manager.
"Truly, I love him as a manager," Harper proclaimed. "Flat out, I absolutely do and if I didn't, everybody would know because I'm not shy to say things."
Harper's powerful comments came moments after he pounded two more homers and drove in all four runs in the Nationals' 4-0...
PHILADELPHIA - Phillies starter David Buchanan has been laboring through his second season in the majors. Buchanan brought a 9.11 ERA into tonight's game with the Nationals and proceeded to fire a fastball behind Bryce Harper on the opening pitch of their first meeting.
Harper stared back at Buchanan while the Nationals dugout chirped. Two pitches later, Harper deposited another Buchanan heater over the wall in center for a two-out solo homer. The Nats slugger stood and admired the titanic...
PHILADELPHIA - Recently acquired Nationals closer Jonathan Papelbon gave the few thousand Phillies fans left in the 10th inning last night exactly what they came to Citizens Bank Park to see.
Tasked with locking down a 7-6 lead, Papelbon surrendered a leadoff homer to Phillies shortstop Freddy Galvis. Until the game-tying leadoff blast, Papelbon had been the lone remaining closer in the majors this season without a blown save. In fact, the last time he coughed up a lead was exactly one year...
PHILADELPHIA - Bryce Harper blasted his 37th homer of the season last night with a solo shot off Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola. The third-inning blast gave the young slugger the first longball of his career off a pitcher younger than him. Harper is 6 1/2 months older than the 22-year-old Nola.
Harper's 91 straight home runs to open his career off a pitcher older than him is the third-longest streak in the expansion era behind Mike Trout (116) and Bob Horner (95).
Harper has reached base...
The Orioles today announced that they have recalled right-hander Oliver Drake, outfielder Junior Lake, infielder Christian Walker and right-hander Tyler Wilson from Triple-A Norfolk.
Drake, 28, posted a 0.82 ERA (44.0IP, 4ER) in 42 games with the Tides this season. He finished second in the International League with 23 saves (going 23-for-23 in save opportunities) and was named to the International League Postseason All-Star Team. Drake made three appearances in the Governors' Cup Playoffs,...
PHILADELPHIA - The roller coaster ride of a season continues for Stephen Strasburg tonight with the right-hander's 20th start of the year. Strasburg is coming off a hard luck loss to the Mets last Wednesday where he breezed through the first seven innings before surrendering a game-tying leadoff homer to Kelly Johnson in the eighth.
After fanning Kirk Nieuwenhuis for his season-high 13th strikeout of the game, Strasburg was yanked when he yielded a single to Curtis Granderson. Yoenis Cespedes...
Before sitting down to write this article, I worked out a little bit, laboring through a run before realizing that it takes every ounce of my strength to do a single push-up.
But anyway, moving on to talk about "American Ninja Warrior," if you're unfamiliar with the show's premise, people compete in an extremely vigorous obstacle course that requires tons of strength, endurance and agility. Currently in its seventh season, the American version of the show (which originated in Japan) had...
PHILADELPHIA - Raise your hand if you had Doug Fister saving a near meaningless game in mid-September this season. That's exactly what happened last night when manager Matt Williams called on Fister for the first time in 13 days to close out a seesaw contest that left the Nationals leading the Phillies 8-7 in the bottom of the 11th.
Fister walked Cameron Rupp to start the frame, but then settled down, whiffing Andres Blanco and Odubel Herrera before getting Freddy Galvis to line out to end the...
PHILADELPHIA - In a season filled with injuries that have interfered with a division crown and a possible deep run into October, the Nationals are finally showing the potential of some of their battered stars.
Anthony Rendon and Jayson Werth - two guys who have combined to miss 151 games this year - led the way tonight as the Nationals outlasted the Phillies 8-7 in a game that featured 16 pitchers over 11 innings.
Rendon set the tone from the start, smacking the first pitch of the game from...
It doesn't take a baseball expert to notice Chris Davis' rare power at the plate. He's already surpassed the 40-homer mark for the second time in his career (42, most in the majors), he's sixth in slugging percentage (.562), and he's second in isolated power (.299). With a wRC+ of 148, Davis is still a ways away from his 168 wRC+ from 2013. But he's bounced back in a big way after a disastrous 2014, and he's put himself in position to make a ton of money this offseason.
In Davis'...
There are books in the upper echelon of make-you-think works. B.F. Skinner's controversial (to this day) book on human behavior, "Beyond Freedom and Dignity," is high on that list.
Skinner was a psychologist who wrote, sought social reform and taught at Harvard from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.
This 1971 book created a stir within his field, as well as reviews and critiques that go on to this day. He touched a very human nerve that took interest in the book beyond the scientific field...
On the 15th of September, the Nationals are 10 games back of the New York Mets and it's safe to say their postseason chances are just a little more than zero. Before the season started, almost everyone thought Washington was a favorite to win the World Series. I predicted on my blog, MattsBats.com, that they would win 99 games and take the National League East easily. A lot of people are now wondering what went wrong for the Nationals this year. Today, I am looking at three of the biggest...