And we're back. Seven innings down, seven more to go before the Nationals can finally get out of New York and return home after a long week. Erick Fedde brings a 4-8 record and 5.15 ERA to his late-afternoon start. The last time Fedde faced the Mets, on June 18, he pitched seven scoreless innings of two-hit ball with six strikeouts to bring his season ERA to 3.33. Over the eight starts since, the right-hander is 0-4 with a 7.75 ERA. In two starts against the Mets this season, Fedde has only...

The recipe for success for the Nationals the rest of the way this season is going to be one of two things: keep the score close, take a late lead and hope to hold on, or explode for a lot of runs early and win in a blowout. Neither of those scenarios took place in today's 4-1 doubleheader opening loss to the Mets. Let's start with keeping the score close. The Nationals did get a gutsy effort from Sean Nolin in his first major league appearance since 2015. But the left-hander served up a...

The Orioles received another high-leverage reliever this afternoon with Rule 5 pick Tyler Wells' reinstatement from the 10-day injured list. Wells replaces Isaac Mattson, who was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk after last night's 5-2 loss to the Tigers. Wells has been on the IL with tendinitis in his right wrist. Anthony Santander is the cleanup hitter again today. He's homered in three consecutive games for the first time in his career, totaling four in that stretch. Cedric Mullins has an...

When we saw former Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy at Camden Yards for his O's Hall of Fame induction over the weekend, it brought back a lot of good memories. He was a huge part of the core group of players that took an organization that had 14 straight losing seasons and turned it back into a winner. A winner that led the American League in victories from 2012 through 2016 and that made three playoff appearances, advancing as far as the 2014 American League Championship Series. It was a special...

As the Orioles wrap up a three-game series with the Detroit Tigers this afternoon, Baltimore's Anthony Santander can homer for the fourth game in a row and Tigers great Miguel Cabrera could hit a milestone 500th home run. Cabrera could, but he will have to do it coming off the bench as h is not in the starting lineup. The Tigers return home to Comerica Park after today's game for a six-game homestand. Cabrera blasted home run No. 499 in Detroit's 5-2 win last night. He connected against a...

Chris Davis won't make a final attempt at resuming his baseball career. He's done for good. Davis announced his retirement this morning with one year remaining on his franchise-record seven-year, $161 million contract. He was out for the entire 2021 season after undergoing arthroscopic surgery May 19 in Dallas to repair the labrum in his left hip. "After an extended time dealing with my injury and recent hip surgery, I informed the Orioles about my decision to retire effective today," Davis...

The past few days have not been easy on Nationals manager Davey Martinez and pitching coach Jim Hickey. A suspended game Tuesday night then a postponement last night has led to today's doubleheader against the Mets at Citi Field, while also throwing the Nats' pitching plans into chaos. Good thing they're in the city that never sleeps. After a confusing 40 hours or so, Martinez was able to lay out his pitching plans for today's two games: Sean Nolin will start the opener and Erick Fedde will...

It's been a weird week for the Nationals in New York leading up to this afternoon's series finale against the Mets. The coaching staff rejoined the team on Monday's off-day. Tuesday's game was suspended in the second inning. In Wednesday's resumption, the Nats blew a 4-1 lead, then went up 7-4 and blew that lead before finally losing 8-7. And then yesterday's regularly scheduled game had to be rescheduled as a part of an early doubleheader today. Let's hope everything goes smoothly for...

On a night the Orioles losing streak was extended to seven with a 5-2 loss to Detroit, there were a few positive signs that some better days could be in the offing. For one, it was good to see Matt Harvey return, throw four scoreless innings before he ran into trouble in the fifth and get through his start doing fine physically. This outing was pushed back a few days after he tweaked his right knee in his last start. With lefty Bruce Zimmermann likely to rejoin the rotation this weekend, this...

Two weeks ago, if the Nationals held a 7-5 lead heading to the seventh inning, Davey Martinez wouldn't have needed to think too hard about his upcoming pitching decisions. Provided everyone was available, he would've had Kyle Finnegan pitch the seventh, then Daniel Hudson the eighth and Brad Hand the ninth. It wouldn't always have worked, and certainly during those final days before the trade deadline Hand was anything but a sure thing. But the decision-making process that resulted in those...