Since Mike Elias and company took the reins in 2019, the Orioles have been one of, if not the most, successful drafting teams in the league. 

Of course, having some top five selections have helped to solidify that podium placement, allowing Baltimore to draft talents like Adley Rutschman, Heston Kjerstad, Colton Cowser and Jackson Holliday. But, it’s important to note that those high draft picks weren’t necessary to acquire great talent. 

In that 2019 draft class, when Rutschman was selected first overall, Gunnar Henderson was drafted by the O’s with the 42nd pick, Kyle Stowers 71st, and Joey Ortiz 108th. 

A year later, when Kjerstad was the second overall pick, Jordan Westburg was 30th and Coby Mayo was 103rd. 

Great drafts aren’t just made by the drafts themselves, though. Once the players are selected, their new player development system is responsible for getting them through the minor leagues and to the big leagues. 

ANAHEIM, Calif. – For eight innings, the Nationals did just enough to keep today's series finale against the Angels close, overcoming missed opportunities, missed calls and missed locations to at least put themselves in position to win.

It was, quite frankly, the kind of game they lost too many times over the last week and a half during a Southern California road trip that featured as many one-run losses as wins of any margin (three apiece).

And then when it really mattered, a Nats team wrapping up a miserable month found a way to deliver and head home finally feeling better about itself for the first time in a long time.

With a ninth-inning rally against future Hall of Fame closer Kenley Jansen, then a three-run rally keyed by several youngsters in the 11th and the first three-inning relief appearance of Kyle Finnegan's career, the Nationals pulled off a rousing, 7-4 victory at Angel Stadium that felt as significant as any other during this disappointing season.

"We haven't done as well as we'd like in the wins department this road trip," Finnegan said. "But I feel like we've played pretty good baseball. So to win a game like this - last game of a long road trip away from home, guys away from their families, grind one out in extra innings - I feel like it's good for our morale."

Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino hung the label of “day game Deano” on his starting pitcher this afternoon, though Kremer’s splits in reality are slightly better at night.

Mansolino turned out to be correct, whether by accident or some sort of premonition.

Kremer shut out the Rays on three hits over seven innings and the Orioles claimed the series with a crisp 5-1 victory before an announced crowd of 19,226 at Camden Yards.

The homestand ends with the Orioles splitting six games to leave their overall record at 36-47. They’ve gone 15-11 this month and are 20-13 since Game 2 on May 24.

"Every divisional series win is beneficial and advantageous down the road," Kremer said. "If we get into a spot where we’re competing for a Wild Card spot, we get to hold it over their head down the stretch. So it’s big winning all of our divisional games."

ANAHEIM, Calif. – As he watched from the bullpen in the bottom of the seventh Saturday night, helpless to do anything about the nightmare inning his teammates were suffering through, Kyle Finnegan tried to think of any good that could come from the situation.

The Nationals’ closer would’ve rather been on the mound himself. But that wasn’t going to happen that early in the game. So he could only watch Zach Brzykcy, Eduardo Salazar and Ryan Loutos combine to give up six runs and turn a one-run lead over the Angels into a five-run deficit, then try to help them have some perspective at the end of the night.

“When you find yourself struggling for whatever reason, watching from the outside, you want to go out there and try to help or tell them what to do,” he said. “But as a young player, I think it’s important to learn on your own. Unfortunately, in this game you learn from mistakes a lot of times. I hope these guys learn from things that have hurt them and always remember the things that have gone well.”

Finnegan has been doing a lot of watching from the bullpen in recent weeks. The Nationals today play the ninth and final game of this extra-long trip through Southern California. Their closer has appeared in only two of those games, each of them coming in San Diego, where he faced only one batter each time, entering in a non-save situation each time.

The Nats have won three games on the trip, one apiece over the Dodgers, Padres and Angels. But in each case, they won by at least four runs. So there hasn’t been a save situation for Finnegan to enter.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – The Nationals arrived in Southern California way back on July 19, fresh off a walk-off win over the Rockies that finally snapped their losing streak at 11 games. Today, they finally wrap up this nine-game trip through all three major league cities in the region, having lost two of three to both the Dodgers and the Padres and needing a win today against the Angels to avoid the same fate.

The good news: Davey Martinez should have his top bullpen options available to him after not having them Saturday night. So if Mitchell Parker can get the Nats through five or six quality innings, Brad Lord, Jose A. Ferrer and Kyle Finnegan are all raring to go, with Finnegan in particular available for more than one inning given how little he has pitched during this road trip.

The Nats also need to score more than the two runs they scored Saturday, only one of them coming off starter Kyle Hendricks. Today they face right-hander Jack Kochanowicz, who is 3-8 with a 5.49 ERA in 16 starts. The key: He has walked 4.2 batters per nine innings while striking out only 6.5. Patience, patience, patience from a lineup that includes all of the recent regulars with one exception: Drew Millas gets the start behind the plate after Riley Adams caught the majority of five straight games following Keibert Ruiz's head injury.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at LOS ANGELES ANGELS
Where: Angel Stadium
Gametime: 4:07 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 85 degrees, wind 8 mph out to center field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
2B Luis García Jr.
1B Nathanial Lowe
DH Josh Bell
3B Brady House
RF Daylen Lile
C Drew Millas
CF Jacob Young

The Orioles are losing another starting pitcher.

Zach Eflin is trending toward the injured list in the next 24 hours, according to interim manager Tony Mansolino. Eflin exited yesterday’s game after one inning with lower back tightness that he felt in the bullpen, and his condition didn’t improve this morning.

This would be Eflin’s second trip to the IL. He’s made only 12 starts and posted a 5.95 ERA and 1.435 WHIP in 62 innings.

“At that point, depending on how today goes, we’ll make the next move in accordance with that,” Mansolino said.

The Orioles could recall Brandon Young after optioning him on Friday.

The Orioles made another roster move this morning, which is becoming part of their daily routine.

Matt Bowman has his contract selected from Triple-A Norfolk and Kade Strowd was optioned to provide a fresh arm for the bullpen.

Luis F. Castillo was reinstated from the minor league seven-day injured list and designated for assignment.

Bowman has a 4.57 ERA in 18 games with the Orioles. Strowd made back-to-back appearances this weekend and allowed one run in 3 1/3 innings.

The Orioles acquired Castillo from the Mariners on May 8 for cash considerations. He made two appearances with the Florida Complex League team and allowed one run in 2 2/3 innings.

The unsettled status of the Orioles’ rotation broadened yesterday with Zach Eflin’s lower back tightness and disappearance after only one inning. The series against the Rays concludes today with Dean Kremer starting, and the current roster has Trevor Rogers, Charlie Morton and Tomoyuki Sugano lined up for the Rangers series in Arlington.

Eflin’s availability for his next start is up in the air, and likely to land before Jonathan Aranda’s home run ball. His turn arrives on the off-day and he could pitch Friday night in Atlanta if healthy. A trip to the injured list, and it’s premature to speculate, could return Brandon Young to the majors. He must stay down a minimum 15 days unless replacing an injured player.

Off-days Thursday and July 7 could prompt the Orioles to stick with a temporary four-man arrangement.

The next call isn’t going to left-hander Cade Povich.

Povich is eligible to return on Tuesday but the Orioles want to give him more work on his injury rehab assignment. He started for Triple-A Norfolk Thursday and allowed three earned runs and five total with seven hits, one walk and three strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings. He threw 75 pitches

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Friday night’s wacky win over the Angels may have seen the Nationals explode for 15 runs, their best offensive output in four years, but it also came at a cost. When Jake Irvin couldn’t contain Los Angeles’ offense, Davey Martinez had to lean hard on two of his few trusted relievers in order to close out an eventual 15-9 win.

Brad Lord and Jose A. Ferrer got the job done, but each was pushed to record more than three outs, with Lord totaling 36 pitches. Which left both guys unavailable tonight when the second game of the series reached the bottom of the seventh with the Nats clinging to a 2-1 lead.

Michael Soroka had already completed six innings for only the fourth time this season. And Martinez wasn’t about to send his starter back out there for the seventh for the first time. So the game fell into the hands of Zach Brzykcy. And when Brzykcy faltered, Eduardo Salazar. And when Salazar faltered, Ryan Loutos.

The end result wasn’t pretty.

The three right-handers combined to allow six runs during a nightmare inning that turned a tight, low-scoring ballgame into an 8-2 rout by the Angels, spoiling the 162nd game of James Wood’s career. With a chance to clinch their first series win in eight tries, the Nats now find themselves needing to win Sunday’s finale in order to pull that off.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Andrew Chafin is facing live hitters again and could be ready to come off the injured list during the Nationals’ upcoming homestand.

Chafin, out since June 8 with a strained right hamstring, threw a simulated game Friday at Angel Stadium and emerged feeling good about himself after the 30-pitch session.

There is a caveat, of course, given the nature of the left-hander’s injury.

“As you know, there’s nothing wrong with his arm,” manager Davey Martinez said. “It was his hamstring. So, he threw the ball well.”

The more important test for Chafin will come as he attempts to simulate running plays off the mound.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – The Nationals enjoyed their best offensive night in four years to open this series, blasting 15 runs on 19 hits in a slugfest victory over the Angels on Friday night. So, what should we expect tonight?

The way this lineup has operated all season, it feels like they’re more likely to be shut out by Kyle Hendricks than put up big numbers again. Hendricks has long been a master of soft contact, and we know many of the Nats’ regulars struggle with sinkers and changeups down in the zone. They’re going to have to show the kind of patience they haven’t often shown this season to have some success against the crafty veteran.

Michael Soroka, meanwhile, will look to continue what he did last weekend in Los Angeles, and then finish strong. It’s the finishing part that has given the right-hander so much trouble. Soroka’s sixth inning ERA this season is a ridiculous 22.85. His ERA in all other innings is 3.49. Clearly, he has the ability to be good. He just needs to sustain it through the conclusion of his starts.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at LOS ANGELES ANGELS
Where: Angel Stadium
Gametime: 9:38 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 80 degrees, wind 8 mph out to center field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
2B Luis García Jr.
1B Nathaniel Lowe
DH Josh Bell
3B Brady House
RF Daylen Lile
C Riley Adams
CF Jacob Young

Zach Eflin’s attempts at a bounce back started with a thud.

Tampa Bay leadoff hitter Josh Lowe doubled in the first inning and chugged home on Brandon Lowe’s single. The throw enabled the runner to move into scoring position, but it didn’t matter.  Jonathan Aranda homered with one out, Junior Caminero and Jake Mangum singled, and a fielder’s choice gave the Rays a quick four-run lead.

The Orioles didn’t have another comeback at the ready. They didn’t have Eflin by the second inning.

Eflin threw 28 pitches and came out of the game with lower back tightness, replaced by Scott Blewett in an 11-3 loss to the Rays before an announced crowd of 30,491 at sunny Camden Yards.

Ramón Laureano hit his 10^th home run in the ninth after Coby Mayo singled, but quiet bats had influenced the outcome. 

Interim manager Tony Mansolino remains confident that infielder Jordan Westburg will avoid the injured list.

Westburg dived into second base last night and jammed the left index finger that he sprained in New York, but X-rays for a fracture were negative.

“Very day-to-day, not nearly as bad as last time,” Mansolino said. “Probably couple days would be my guess. So I think it will be a little quicker than last time.”

Emanuel Rivera is in the clubhouse to give the Orioles an extra infielder.

“With the way things are kind of situated right now, it made sense,” Mansolino said.

The ticking clock doesn’t make a sound in baseball parlance. It’s more of a visual thing, counting down until reaching a date and time of particular importance.

For the Orioles, the exactness is missing in their response to the trade deadline. Though it arrives on July 31, how they react remains in discussion.

When must the front office reveal itself as sellers or buyers? And is it pink for sell and blue for buy?

The day started with the Orioles 11 games below .500 and seven behind for the last Wild Card. They’d need to perform an Olympian vault over seven other teams to reach the postseason for the third year in a row.

The math says it’s a stretch.

The Orioles are hoping that they have more runs in the tank today after scoring 22 last night, which fell one short of the franchise record.

Jordan Westburg is out of the lineup after reinjuring his left index finger last night on a dive into second base. X-rays were negative for a fracture.

Needing another infielder while Westburg is day-to-day, the Orioles selected Emmanuel Rivera’s contract from Triple-A Norfolk, optioned outfielder Dylan Carlson and designated pitcher Kyle Tyler for assignment.

Carlson is batting .241/.278/.389 in 40 games. Rivera is hitting .232/.303/.275 in 25 games with the Orioles.

Tyler was selected on waivers from the Phillies on June 15. He made two relief appearances with Norfolk and allowed one earned run and two total with six hits in four innings.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – The wildest game of the Nationals’ season was knotted at 9 in the bottom of the sixth Friday night at Angel Stadium. Nobody who had taken the mound for either team had enjoyed any substantive level of success, and now here came Brad Lord out of the bullpen to face Mike Trout with nobody out and a runner in scoring position.

It was arguably the biggest head-to-head matchup Lord has faced yet in his rookie season. The trick for the young right-hander: Don’t think of it that way.

“Coming into any close game like that, you feel the pressure of: ‘I’ve got to shut them down, throw up a zero,’” he said. “I just try to treat it like any other outing. Execute the game plan, and go right after these guys.”

And then he did exactly that. Lord retired Trout on a sharp grounder to second, with Luis García Jr. making a nifty play on the ball hit to his left. He got Taylor Ward to ground out to short, a drawn-in CJ Abrams able to hold the go-ahead runner at third. Then he got Jo Adell to ground out as well and end the inning.

And then he went right back out there in the bottom of the seventh and recorded two more outs before finally departing having thrown 36 total pitches across 1 2/3 scoreless innings. And thanks to his teammates’ best offensive night in four years, Lord emerged from it all the winning pitcher in the Nats’ 15-9 thumping of the Angels.

As the industry perception builds that the Orioles will be sellers at the trade deadline, their bullpen is attracting the expected interest.

The collective stats aren’t impressive, but woven in are numbers from position players Gary Sánchez, Emmanuel Rivera, Jorge Mateo and Luis Vázquez. The first three combined to allow 17 runs in three emergency innings. Vázquez tossed a scoreless inning last Saturday.

Catcher Jacob Stallings, signed to a major league contract on Tuesday and sent to Triple-A Norfolk, has made nine career relief appearances and allowed five runs in 11 innings. But he’s in the organization to fill a need behind the plate, not on the mound.

Pending free agents Seranthony Domínguez and Gregory Soto are obvious targets due to their contracts and past production. Domínguez retired the side in order last night in the sixth and extended his streak to 14 appearances in a row without an earned run allowed. An automatic runner scored against him in the 10^th inning Tuesday against the Rangers.

Domínguez has let only one of 20 inherited runners score. Mark Thurmond holds the single-season franchise record of 10.5 percent scoring in 1988. Domínguez’s five percent is second on the club this year behind Keegan Akin’s 4.2.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – The Nationals may not have played a sloppier game all season. Tonight’s series opener against the Angels included defensive mistakes, baserunning gaffes and poor starting pitching.

So how was it the Nats were the ones celebrating at the center of the diamond at the end of a wacky, 15-9 victory at Angel Stadium? Because on a night in which they did so many things wrong, they also enjoyed their best offensive performance in four years and got just enough quality work from the back of their bullpen to pull off an escape act.

They easily established new season highs in runs (15) and hits (19). They scored in seven of their nine offensive innings, including six straight from the fourth through the ninth. All nine starters delivered at least one hit and at least one RBI. All nine reached base multiple times, with seven players delivering multiple hits.

"We outslugged them," manager Davey Martinez said with a laugh when asked about the rare combination of explosive offense and sloppy defense and baserunning. "Look, we came out victorious. We didn't play all that good the first six innings. It was a little sloppy. But we hung in there, and we hit the ball."

The 15 runs are the most the Nationals have scored in a game since they plated 18 against the Marlins on July 19, 2021, a month that did not end well for a franchise that decided to tear down the remnants of its championship roster and embark on a rebuild that continues four years later.

The good news came early for the Orioles tonight, as if they were owned a few breaks. The temperature dipped into the mid-70s to provide some relief from the scorching heat. CB Bucknor wouldn’t work the plate in the series, confined instead to the bases for three games. Tomoyuki Sugano struck out the first two batters he faced and retired the Rays in order. Jordan Westburg doubled in the bottom of the first on a 106.6 mph liner that deflected off third baseman Junior Caminero.

And then, the bad times rolled. Westburg dived into the bag and reinjured his index finger, which led to his removal an inning later. The Rays homered three times off Sugano in the second, including Brandon Lowe’s three-run shot.

The cliché about two teams heading in opposite directions unfolded and then paused, with the Orioles playing the opposite role in a big blown lead versus the Rays. They did the rallying this time, along with some major venting, in a preposterous 22-8 victory before an announced crowd of 20,047 at misty Camden Yards.

Gary Sánchez had four RBIs, including a go-ahead two-run homer in the fifth, Coby Mayo hit his first major league homer - off a shortstop - and also drove in four runs, and the Orioles (35-46) won for the second time in six games. The Rays (46-36) lost for only the fourth time in 14 games.

"You know over the course of 162 there's going to be a lot of ups and downs. There's going to be a lot of highs and lows, and we've had our lows. Tonight was a high," said interim manager Tony Mansolino.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Keibert Ruiz has been transferred to the seven-day concussion injured list after a recent diagnosis spurred by continued headaches for the Nationals catcher.

Ruiz was watching from the dugout Monday night in San Diego when teammate Josh Bell hit a foul ball that whizzed past several players and then ricocheted back toward Ruiz, striking him on the right side of the head. Initial tests taken that night did not reveal a concussion, so he was placed on the 10-day IL with a head contusion.

Ruiz was still experiencing headaches in the days after the incident, though, so he was examined again by another doctor, who determined he had suffered what manager Davey Martinez referred to as a “mild” concussion.

The Nats made the transaction to move Ruiz to the 7-day concussion IL, which actually makes him eligible to return Tuesday when the team opens a homestand against the Tigers and Red Sox, three days earlier than he would have been eligible to come off the 10-day IL. He’ll still need to be cleared by a doctor before returning.

“If everything continues to go well, he’ll take that another test in seven days, and hopefully he’s OK to play,” Martinez said.