Heading into the 2021 season, the Orioles were rated No. 7 in the Baseball America organizational rankings in January. It was their highest rating in the 37 years Baseball America has published such information. Well, the club just made another nice move up and today, in the newest rankings, the Orioles are No. 2. In March, they were ranked No. 5 by MLBPipeline.com, so the club is movin' on up. The Baseball America organization rankings include players that are prospect-eligible as of Aug. 15....

On Sunday afternoon, Lane Thomas became the 54th player to appear in a game for the Nationals this season. That's an exceptionally high number, only three shy of the club record set way back in 2006. And with 44 games still to go, and more players likely to join the roster before this is over, it's quite possible this year's team will establish a new record. The pertinent question right now, though, isn't how many guys will play for the Nationals in 2021. It's how many of the guys...

Rylan Bannon has been hearing the same message from his hitting coach upon returning to the dugout after launching another home run for Triple-A Norfolk. "This is who you are." This isn't how Bannon played earlier in the season, but the turnaround has picked up speed like a tornado. Bannon came to the plate yesterday with the bases loaded in Game 1 of a doubleheader against Memphis and cleared them with a double. He had two hits and was 7-for-11 with five home runs and nine RBIs in his last...

For a while when the 2021 season began, the Orioles were playing some competitive baseball. They went 4-2 on an opening road trip to Boston and New York and 7-8 after 15 games. After 31 games, they were 15-16. When the second half began after the All-Star break, the Orioles went 10-6 in the first 16 games. You add those two stretches together and you get 25-22, or .532 baseball over a 47-game stretch. But with Sunday's loss at Boston, the club's 11th in a row, the Orioles are 13-56 (.188) in...

As miserable as things have been lately for a Nationals team that has turned winning baseball games into an increasingly difficult task, one not insignificant truth has emerged: They've given themselves an opportunity to win just about every one of these games. Sure, there have been a few duds along the way, and Saturday night's blowout loss to the Braves was probably the worst of them all. But most of the time, the rebuilding Nats step to the plate in the ninth inning with a chance to turn a...

The Orioles had their brief moment this afternoon. The early rally, the hit with a runner in scoring position, a lead against the Red Sox. Keegan Akin took his turn on the mound in the bottom of the first inning and surrendered a three-run homer to J.D. Martinez among his 22 pitches. The next three innings saw Akin bend but not break, keeping the Orioles in the game, unsure whether it keeps him in the rotation. But the losing streak is rolling into St. Petersburg, Fla., for the next stop on the...

In baseball, what happens in all nine innings counts. and what happened today in the first inning at Boston was pretty big as the Orioles saw their losing streak to extended 11 games in a row. They fell behind 3-1 after one frame on their way to a 6-2 loss. Boston swept this three-game series by a combined score of 30-5 after being swept there in the first series of the season when they were outscored by Baltimore 18-5. Former O's farmhand Eduardo Rodriguez took the mound for Boston today,...

A summer of misery for the Nationals took another turn for the worse in the last 24 hours when Joe Ross reported forearm tightness following a bullpen throwing session and a subsequent MRI revealed a partial tear of his elbow ligament. The club hasn't finalized a plan yet for Ross, but he will be examined by Keith Meister, the Dallas-area orthopedist who performed Tommy John surgery on him four years ago, and a second major elbow procedure is possible. If that does prove to be the course of...

The Washington Nationals recalled outfielder Lane Thomas and placed right-handed pitcher Joe Ross on the 10-day Injured List (retroactive to Aug. 12) with a partial tear of his right elbow ulnar collateral ligament on Sunday. Nationals President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement. Thomas, 25, was acquired by the Washington Nationals from the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for left-handed pitcher Jon Lester on July 30. He hit .385 (5-for-13) with a...

Things are pretty bleak around Nationals Park these days. The home team has lost 11 of 12 and 29 of 39, and has fallen into a tie with the Marlins for last place in the National League East. Yes, this is the first step in a rebuilding project, and the club's record means a lot less now than it did three weeks ago. But that doesn't make this any easier to watch. Or, for those involved personally, to experience. But the Nationals have no choice but to press on, and today they'll try to snap...