The Nationals' series finale in Arizona this afternoon is important, because they're trying to win the series and head to Chicago on a positive note. But there's another important event taking place this afternoon, across the country in Trenton, N.J., where Stephen Strasburg is making a rehab start for Triple-A Rochester. It's important, of course, for Strasburg to emerge from his start (planned for five innings and 75-80 innings) healthy, because if that happens, he may be deemed ready to...

The Orioles need to beat the New York Yankees at Camden Yards today to avoid a three-game sweep. New York rallied to win 5-4 on Friday and then scored five early runs last night to post an 8-2 win. The Orioles (16-23) will reach the 40-game mark today. They have lost four in a row and seven of eight games. The O's are 3-6 against the Yankees, but have scored just 21 runs in those nine games. The Orioles are starting right-hander Adam Plutko (1-0, 1.27 ERA) in today's series finale. Plutko has...

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said today that the composition of the Yankees lineup in the series finale prompted the decision to start right-hander Adam Plutko. Left-hander Bruce Zimmermann was recalled today and could cover innings. "Just because they're so right-handed," Hyde said in his Zoom call. "We're going to try to piece this one together today. Plutko's obviously got a lot of starting experience and the first right guys in their batting order are right-handed. So we'll see how...

The Orioles are going with a bullpen game this afternoon to close out their series against the Yankees at Camden Yards. Adam Plutko is getting the start after making 15 relief appearances and compiling a 1.27 ERA and 1.031 WHIP in 21 1/3 innings. He's surrendered only one home run. Purchased from the Indians on March 27, Plutko hasn't started since Aug. 21, 2020. His longest outing with the Orioles was three scoreless innings on April 6 versus the Yankees in the Bronx. The 39 pitches also...

Any discussion of Juan Soto being in a slump has to include the qualifier that a Soto slump isn't like any other hitter's slump. Other hitters go 1-for-30 with 17 strikeouts, and that's clearly a slump. Soto goes 6-for-30 with six strikeouts and we start worrying about him. Soto has set the bar for himself extraordinarily high. But having said that, it's not inappropriate to point out he's not hitting like himself right now. And hasn't been for a while. In his first 10 games since coming...

As it turned out, right-hander Jórge Lopez might have broken through that fifth-inning barrier and had a strong outing in his previous game versus the Boston Red Sox, but he could not build on that last night. López got an early exit, the Orioles fell into an early deficit and they added another loss against the New York Yankees. The Yankees led 5-0 after two innings and beat the Orioles 8-2 at Camden Yards as López had a rough night, one where he gave up six hits and five runs (four...

Davey Martinez knew what Joe Ross had been getting away with in recent starts before tonight's game in Arizona, and so the Nationals manager knew exactly what his right-hander needed to do to be successful in this outing. "The pitches are up," Martinez said during his pregame Zoom session with reporters. "When he's down, he's really effective." As such, it wasn't hard to figure out why Ross wasn't effective tonight during an 11-4 trouncing at the hands of the Diamondbacks. Plain and...

I just made another check of a few Orioles prospect lists and can't find any mention of Patrick Dorrian. Not a trace. The casual fan might ask, "Who's Patrick Dorrian?" He's the Double-A Bowie infielder who was the player to be named later in the May 2019 Yefry Ramirez trade with the Pirates. The former Braves 12th round pick in 2014 out of Kingston High School who was released two months later and signed by the Pirates four years later. Dorrian changed his mind about professional...

Getting ahead in the count didn't work for Jorge López. Falling behind didn't work, either. The first inning had been the kindest for López among his seven starts, with no runs allowed and only five baserunners. But he was 0-2 tonight on DJ LeMahieu and Luke Voit, and issued a walk and surrendered a hit. He walked Aaron Judge with the count 3-1 to load the bases with no outs. The Yankees siphoned 39 pitches out of López and scored three runs, Judge hit his prerequisite homer in the...

Yan Gomes had come up to bat with a chance to hit for the cycle before. Four times, in fact, as a big leaguer. But never like this. On those four previous occasions (once with the Nationals, three times with the Indians), Gomes needed a triple to complete the cycle. And in each case, he had only one at-bat at the end of the game to try to do it. So imagine how surreal it felt for the 33-year-old catcher when he stepped up to bat in the top of the sixth Friday night in Arizona, having already...