The Orioles have had a homestand with two kinds of ugly losses and two well-pitched, well-played wins. Tonight they play Game 3 of a four-game series with Boston and Game 5 of their six-game homestand.

The Orioles (72-51) are 2-2 on the homestand, but had fallen one game behind the New York Yankees (73-50) for the AL East lead through Friday. Boston (64-57) is in third place, eight games back of the division leaders.

The Orioles are now 1/2 game back of New York after thier 4-0 loss to Detroit this afternoon as they were held to four hits in falling to 73-51. The O's can tie for first with a win tonight.

The Orioles beat the Red Sox 5-1 Thursday to open this series, as Zach Eflin and four relievers teamed on a seven-hitter with 10 strikeouts. But the O’s staff allowed 14 hits and four homers in last night’s 12-10 loss.

Boston hit four doubles, and added those four homers and scored two or more runs in four different innings. It was the third-most runs the Orioles have allowed in a game this season. They lost 19-8 at Oakland July 6 and 14-11 at Houston June 21.

Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman is trending in a direction that moves him further away from the injured list.

Rutschman was scratched from last night’s lineup with lower back discomfort that flared as he hit in the cage. He’s receiving treatment and remains on the active roster.

“He’s a little better,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “Hoping in the next day or two he can get back in there, and he should be available off the bench tonight, too, in a big spot. Definitely improved from last night. Back feels a little bit better.”

Triple-A Norfolk catcher Blake Hunt is at Camden Yards as the taxi squad catcher. The Orioles might have recalled him if Rutschman’s condition worsened.

“I think we were waiting to see what he was like today,” Hyde said. “If it went backward, I think that was definitely a possibility. That’s one position you can’t be short.  We felt like it was probably going to improve by this afternoon, and it has.”

PHILADELPHIA – The Nationals figured they were going to need bullpen help after seven relievers combined to cover almost 10 innings over the last two games. They just didn’t figure an injury would also creep up on one of their most trusted relief pitchers.

Right-hander Derek Law landed on the 15-day injured list this afternoon with a right elbow flexor strain, while left-hander Robert Garcia was placed on the bereavement list. To fill their spots in the ‘pen, the Nats selected the contract of left-hander Joe La Sorsa and recalled right-hander Joan Adon from Triple-A Rochester.

Law’s injury comes after he pitched an important scoreless eighth inning last night on 12 pitches to give the Nats a chance to rally in the ninth. The right-hander said he was supposed to go back out for the ninth of a newly tied game, but he and the Nationals decided it wasn’t a good idea with his elbow bothering him, leading to closer Kyle Finnegan coming in and surrendering the game-winning run without recording an out.

“Well, personally, I don't think it's really an injury. I feel pretty good,” Law said by his locker in the Nats clubhouse before tonight’s game. “Like today, I feel like I could throw. It's just kind of when I get up to the max-effort level for the last two weeks, I kinda have been grinding through it.

“The elbow has just been kind of barking. I think it's the flexor area. Honestly, it kind of came up during that rain game. When I was throwing, it was just soaking wet. I kind of felt something in there and I was just battling through it for a little bit. And finally, it just caught up yesterday. I was supposed to go back out for that ninth and I came in, not that there was no way I could do it, but I just didn't think it was the right decision to go back out there and do that. So I think just a little time off. Sadly, it has to be 15 days. I think I probably only need five or six, maybe seven. But I'll take my time, get right and be back in September.”

The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

• Recalled LHP Cade Povich from Triple-A Norfolk. He will start tonight’s game.
• Optioned RHP Bryan Baker to Triple-A Norfolk.

The Washington Nationals selected the contract of left-handed pitcher Joe La Sorsa, recalled right-handed pitcher Joan Adon, placed left-handed pitcher Robert Garcia on the Bereavement List and placed right-handed pitcher Derek Law on the 15-day Injured List with a right elbow flexor strain on Saturday. Nationals President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement.

La Sorsa, 26, has pitched to a 2-2 record with a 2.25 ERA in 56.0 innings pitched for Triple-A Rochester this season. He has worked more than 1.0 inning in 24 of his 42 games this season and has produced 31 scoreless appearances. La Sorsa allowed just six of 42 inherited runners (14.3%) to score this season, including only three of his last 34 (8.8%) dating to May 9. Over his last five games, he has allowed one run in 5.2 innings (1.59 ERA) and has held opponents to a .190 batting average (4-for-21).

The Mount Kisco, N.Y. native appeared in 23 games for the Nationals in 2023 after he was claimed off waivers from the Tampa Bay Rays on June 8. La Sorsa went 1-0 with a 4.76 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 28.1 innings pitched in those games. He did not allow a run and struck out eight over his final six appearances, totaling 9.0 innings, including 3.2 scoreless innings with four strikeouts against the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 10.

Adon, 26, returns to the Nationals for his fourth Major League stint this season. Since transitioning to the bullpen in Rochester on June 25, he has a 2.51 ERA with 12 strikeouts in 14.1 innings. He’s gone multiple innings in four of his 10 games in relief and has worked seven scoreless appearances.

Adon’s last two appearances for Washington have been scoreless, working a perfect ninth inning against San Francisco on August 7 and retiring one of two batters he faced on August 8 against the Giants. In all, he is 0-0 with a 6.48 ERA in six games, including one start, for the Nationals this season.

PHILADELPHIA – After winning three of their last four heading into Wednesday’s finale against the Orioles, the Nationals have now dropped three straight games. Following Thursday’s blowout loss to the Phillies, there were some encouraging signs last night before Trea Turner walked it off in the bottom of the ninth. And now there are question marks heading into tonight’s game.

Will the starting pitcher get deeper into the game? Will the offense score in the early innings? What is the state of the bullpen after covering nearly 10 innings over the last two nights?

MacKenzie Gore’s struggles over the last 2 ½ months have been well-documented and disappointing. The only positive sign lately is that the five runs he gave up against the Angels on Sunday were all unearned. The Nationals worked on some things with the young left-hander in his bullpen session on Wednesday in Baltimore. Hopefully that translates into better results tonight, otherwise the Nats may have a serious problem on their hands.

Offensively, the Nats will look to get some early production off Cristopher Sánchez, the only southpaw starter they will face this weekend. Sánchez is 8-8 with a 3.63 ERA and 1.325 WHIP. An All-Star this year, he does an excellent job of keeping the ball in the yard with his 0.3 home runs allowed per nine innings leading the major leagues. He started the only game the Nats have won against the Phillies this year on April 7, when he gave up three runs in 4 ⅓ innings. But he came back on May 18 to hold them to two runs over seven innings.

Tonight’s game is listed as starting at 6:05 p.m., but the actual start time is closer to 6:30 p.m. The Phillies are hosting a pregame ceremony for an enshrinement into their Wall of Fame and listed an earlier start time to get more people into the stadium for it. MASN’s “Nats Xtra” pregame show starts at 6 p.m. on MASN2 and will take you up to first pitch, whenever it is. And yes, the Nats were here last year for the same ceremony.

The Orioles recalled left-hander Cade Povich, who was on their taxi squad, and he’s starting tonight against the Red Sox at Camden Yards. Manager Brandon  Hyde confirmed last night that Povich would get the ball.

Reliever Bryan Baker was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk as the corresponding move. That one was anticipated but not revealed until this afternoon.

Povich registered a 6.27 ERA and 1.688 WHIP in eight starts with the Orioles and is 6-1 with a 3.48 ERA and 1.107 WHIP in 15 games (14 starts) with Norfolk. He's averaging 10.3 strikeouts per nine innings with the Tides.

MLB Pipeline ranks Povich as the organization’s No. 5 prospect.

Albert Suárez is expected to be pushed back to Sunday. Hyde said yesterday that the club wanted to provide some extra rest for the rotation and downplayed the possibility of a six-man setup.

Orioles reliever Danny Coulombe is beyond the beginning stages of his throwing progression.

Coulombe smiles as he provides the latest update, which includes playing catch from 90 feet.

“I’ve been revving up my throwing,” he said yesterday. “I’m on track, so hopefully it just keeps going well. And as long as it keeps going well, we’ll keep going.”

Coulombe was shut down and underwent surgery on June 18 to remove bone chips from his left elbow. He knew that he hadn’t torn his ulnar collateral ligament again. The pain was in a different spot, but it cost the Orioles a top high-leverage reliever who held right-handers to a .130 average and .490 OPS and left-handers to a .171 average and .400 OPS.

The Orioles could have Coulombe increase the distance on his throwing. That’s how it usually works.

To say the least, the Orioles have been inconsistent over recent weeks and maybe even going back further than that.

It has been seen big time on this homestand, which started Tuesday with the O's getting blown out 9-3 by the Nationals. Then they put together solid starts by Dean Kremer and Zach Eflin and won back-to-back by 4-1 and 5-1.

But the Orioles have not won three in a row since July 14-20 around the All-Star break. They have now had five chances to win three in a row since then but are 0-5 in those games.

Friday night they lost 12-10 as Boston evened the four-game series at a win each.

It was surely surprising, even stunning, to see Corbin Burnes allow a career-high eight runs on 10 hits over four innings. In two earlier starts this year versus Boston he had allowed one run in 14 innings as the Red Sox went 5-for-47 (.106) at bat. Last night Boston was 10-for-22 (.455) with three doubles and two homers.

PHILADELPHIA – Mitchell Parker has been the Nationals’ biggest surprise this season. Entering the year, he was a middle-of-the-pack prospect who was called upon to make his major league debut three weeks into the season.

And here he is in mid-August with the second-best ERA in the Nats rotation. That was, however, until tonight.

Parker entered his 22nd major league start with a 3.83 ERA after allowing just two earned runs (four total) in 17 ⅓ innings over his last three starts. But he had yet to face the dangerous bats in the Phillies lineup during his rookie campaign.

The results in the first matchup weren’t pretty as the young left-hander was knocked around over three-plus innings and the Nats defense played sloppy in an eventual 13-3 rout at the hands of a division rival.

"As we talked about earlier today," manager Davey Martinez said after the loss, "two things that can't happen: We can't give away outs and we can't make pitching mistakes. Today, we did both.”

Zach Eflin made one mistake pitch, and it wasn’t egregious. Gunnar Henderson corrected it with one swing.

Henderson lined a two-run homer onto the flag court in right field in the fourth inning to give the Orioles a lead, Cedric Mullins padded it in the fifth, and Eflin registered another quality start with his new team in a 5-1 victory over the Red Sox before an announced crowd of 25,445 at Camden Yards.

The Orioles are 72-50 overall, 6-1 against the Red Sox and 20-35 when the opponent scores first. They moved into a first-place tie with the idle Yankees.

Eflin was removed after 87 pitches and only one run allowed in six innings with a season-high eight strikeouts. He’s made four starts since the Orioles traded for him and all are quality by definition, with six total runs allowed in 25 1/3 innings. The four wins in his first four Orioles starts without a relief appearance are a club record, breaking a tie with Kyle Gibson in 2023.

The 12 starts without a walk this season are most in the majors.

The Orioles who have lost only two American League East series this year - one to the Yankees, one to the Blue Jays - get back into division play tonight when they host Boston to start a four-game series at Oriole Park.

The Orioles (71-50) and the third-place Red Sox (63-56) are the only two clubs in the division that have winning records in 2024 in AL East games.

.667 - Orioles (26-13)
.519 - Boston (14-13)
.489 - New York (22-23)
.425 - Tampa Bay (17-23)
.415 - Toronto (17-24)

The Orioles are 8-2-2 this season in 12 AL East series. They are 18-2-6 their past 26 division series dating to early last April.

The Birds are 5-1 this season versus Boston, sweeping three in Boston from April 9-11 and going 2-1 at home May 27-29. The O's in this series have a chance to win each of their first three series against Boston in a season for the first time since 1976.

PHILADELPHIA – José Tena has returned to the Nationals lineup for tonight’s series opener against the Phillies after missing the two-game set against the Orioles with a thumb injury.

The 23-year-old infielder, who the Nats acquired from the Guardians in the Lane Thomas trade, couldn’t handle a sharp grounder hit right at him in the fourth inning of Sunday’s loss to the Angels. He was struck while trying to turn a double play and had to depart the game with a towel wrapped around his bleeding right thumb.

X-rays were negative, with no broken bones, but the cut on Tena’s thumb was significant enough to keep the young third baseman out of the lineup for the two games in Baltimore.

But now Tena, who became the first player in franchise history with a walk-off hit in his team debut on Saturday, returns to the field at third base while batting eighth at Citizens Bank Park.

“He's good. He's gonna play today,” manager Davey Martinez said during his pregame meeting with the media. “He felt better yesterday, so he's in the lineup today. We'll see how he does.”

Jackson Holliday played in 10 games in his first stop in the majors before the Orioles sent him down. Coby Mayo made it to seven.

They hit .059, with Holliday going 2-for-34 and Mayo 1-for-17. The Orioles want to see other similarities.

Holliday was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk, hit a grand slam in his first game and homered five times in 10. He strung together three consecutive multi-hit games. The at-bats and the confidence were improved.

Now it’s Mayo’s turn after the Orioles optioned him early this afternoon and recalled infielder Liván Soto, who was batting .355/.412/.581 (11-for-31) in nine games.

Young prospects who return to the minors take with them valuable information and experience, Holliday, Colton Cowser and Grayson Rodriguez just a few of the examples.

O’s outfielder Colton Cowser has been a Coby Mayo teammate in the majors and minors. They spent a lot of time together on the Triple-A roster. But today, less than 24 hours he picked up his first MLB hit, Mayo was optioned back to Norfolk.

He went 1-for-17 with the Orioles, getting his only hit in the fifth inning last night. He hit a 1-0 slider from Washington lefty DJ Herz for a single into left field. He walked and scored two innings later.

It was his sixth big league game and it was the second time he had reached base twice and he scored his second MLB run.

He leaves to go back to Triple-A, where he was batting .301 with an OPS of .961 and 20 homers over 77 games.

With the Orioles, Mayo hit .059 and fanned 10 times.

Zach Eflin makes his fourth Orioles start tonight to kick off a four-game series against the Red Sox.

Eflin is 3-0 with a 2.33 ERA since joining the Orioles. He’s allowed five runs in 19 1/3 innings.

In his only start against the Red Sox this season, Eflin allowed three runs and six hits over five innings at Fenway Park. He’s faced them five times and gone 2-0 with a 6.00 ERA and 1.417 WHIP in 24 innings.

Rafael Devers is 6-for-13 with three doubles and two home runs against Eflin. Dominic Smith is 7-for-21 with four doubles.

Eflin and Kyle Gibson are the only Orioles to win their first three starts with their new team in their first three appearances, per STATS. Ben McDonald won his first five starts beginning July 21, 1990 after 12 relief appearances.

BALTIMORE – The smile on Orlando Ribalta’s face was still there Wednesday afternoon, some 19 hours after he made his major league debut in the ninth inning of the Nationals’ 9-3 victory over the Orioles.

It was far from a perfect debut; he retired only two of the five batters he faced and had to be pulled when his pitch count got too high. But the experience nonetheless was one Ribalta will never forget.

“I obviously had a lot of adrenaline going, but I know it’s part of the environment, being the first time,” he said. “It was the best thing. It was really cool.”

Promoted from Triple-A Rochester along with first baseman Andres Chaparro, Ribalta was thrown right into the proceedings, handed the ninth inning with the Nats holding a comfortable lead. Davey Martinez hoped the 26-year-old right-hander could record the final three outs of the game, but the manager ultimately had to summon Derek Law to finish it off.

Ribalta, whose head admittedly was spinning under the circumstances, will continue to get opportunities now that he has arrived in the big leagues. The Nationals hope to learn more about the physically imposing reliever over the season’s final seven weeks, determining if he looks like he could be part of the 2025 bullpen or not.

BALTIMORE – The Nationals have not yet closed the gap with the Orioles that has existed for multiple seasons now. One of these teams is headed for its second straight October appearance. The other is spending the next seven weeks identifying which players will be part of a team attempting to win in 2025 and which players will not.

But the gap is shrinking, and the four head-to-head matchups between the two interleague rivals this year underscored that. After getting swept by Baltimore last season and scoring a grand total of one run in the process, the Nats split the Battle of the Beltways this season and actually outscored their opponents by five runs along the way.

Tonight’s finale was right there for the taking, as well, and could’ve given the Nationals their first series victory over the Orioles since 2018. But a lack of offense doomed them on a night when DJ Herz pitched well but took a hard-luck, 4-1 loss at Camden Yards.

Herz allowed just two runs over six strong innings, both runs scoring on one swing in the bottom of the first. His teammates couldn’t match those numbers, though, one night after busting out for nine runs on 15 hits during a lopsided victory.

Tuesday’s big win, coupled with a 3-0 victory back in May in D.C., allowed the Nationals to go 2-2 against Baltimore for the season. And the two losses were highly competitive: a 7-6, 12-inning loss in May, then tonight’s tightly contested affair.

BALTIMORE – Davey Martinez gathered his entire coaching staff together on the Nationals’ off-day and told the group he had an announcement to make: Every one of them was being invited back for the 2025 season.

Prior to Tuesday’s series opener against the Orioles, all of them – pitching coach Jim Hickey, hitting coach Darnell Coles, bench coach Miguel Cairo, first base coach Gerardo Parra, third base coach Ricky Gutierrez, catching and strategy coach Henry Blanco, bullpen coach Ricky Bones, pitching strategist Sean Doolittle and assistant hitting coach Chris Johnson – signed their new contracts. And this afternoon, Martinez made it public, ensuring his full staff not only will return for another season but was made aware long before the current season ends.

“I really wanted to get it done now,” Martinez said. “This way, there’s a little bit of unity, and all the guys know they’ll be back, instead of doing it at the end of the year. I really feel like this is a good corps, and we work really good together. And they’re doing a great job with the kids. For me, it was important to get it done as soon as possible.”

This was a significant departure from the 2023 season, when Martinez (who signed his contract extension in late-August) didn’t make decisions on his coaches until October, making several changes to what had been a tight-knit staff.

With all of the current coaches on one-year deals, speculation had been growing there could be more changes coming this fall, most notably at the hitting coach position. Ultimately, Martinez – with the blessing of general manager Mike Rizzo and Nationals ownership – gave a vote of confidence to everyone, and didn’t make anyone – including the players – have to sweat out the season’s final seven weeks before learning who would be back in 2025.

BALTIMORE – The Nationals have not exactly enjoyed much success against the Orioles in recent years. They entered 2024 having lost 10 of their last 11 to Baltimore, having scored a grand total of one run in four head-to-head games last season. Well, the narrative appears to have flipped at last. The two teams split the series in D.C. back in May. And then the Nats won handily, 9-3, Tuesday night here at Camden Yards. Which means at worst they’ll split the season series, with a shot at winning it for the first time since 2018 if they can win tonight’s finale.

Davey Martinez would love to keep the offense going from 24 hours ago. The Nationals not only scored nine runs, they rapped out 15 hits, 10 of which featured an exit velocity in triple digits. Boy, have they been waiting for something like that. Now, how much of Tuesday’s output was familiarity with Trevor Rogers, and how much was something else? Perhaps we’ll find out tonight when they face Dean Kremer, who enters with a 4.70 ERA but has won each of his two previous career starts against the Nats, including 6 2/3 innings of shutout ball last year.

The Orioles have never seen DJ Herz before, because the left-hander made his major league debut several weeks after the two teams met earlier this season. Herz’s last start was disrupted by rain, so it’s hard to evaluate that performance. He was solid in each of his three previous starts, going five innings each time and never allowing more than two runs.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at BALTIMORE ORIOLES
Where: Camden Yards
Gametime: 6:35 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 84 degrees, wind 6 mph in from left field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
DH Juan Yepez
LF James Wood
1B Andrés Chaparro
2B Luis García Jr.
C Keibert Ruiz
RF Alex Call
3B Ildemaro Vargas
CF Jacob Young