As Ryan Mountcastle tries to get his bat going consistently, a few recent games and last night's three-hit effort are steps forward for the O's 24-year-old outfielder/first baseman/designated hitter. As his struggles went on in the season's first few weeks, Mountcastle said he tried to draw on last year as a reminder of what he could do. He hit .333/.386/.492/.878. His OPS plus of 139 in 2020 was 39 percent above league average. His current mark there is 64, 36 percent below the league. "I...

Less than two weeks after making his major league debut, right-hander Jay Flaa has been designated for assignment and removed from the Orioles' 40-man roster. Space was required this afternoon after the Orioles claimed left-hander Brandon Waddell off waivers from the Twins and assigned him to Triple-A Norfolk. Waddell, 26, was a Pirates fifth-round selection in the 2015 draft out of the University of Virginia. He's made six relief appearances over the past two seasons and allowed six earned...

Somewhere between Yankee Stadium's unique configuration and Juan Soto's eagerness to return to the outfield, Nationals manager Davey Martinez thinks he's seen enough progress from Soto's strained left shoulder to put the slugger back in right field for today's matinee against the Yankees. Soto, who served as the designated hitter Friday night and contributed a two-run homer in the ninth inning of the Nats' 6-2 victory, passed the final hurdle before Friday's game by showing he could...

Today, the Washington Nationals announced that first baseman Josh Bell has been named the Player Ambassador to the Nationals Youth Baseball Academy, the signature program of Nationals Philanthropies, the official charitable arm of the Nationals. In this position, previously held by Ian Desmond and Anthony Rendon, Josh will play an important role in representing the Youth Baseball Academy in the Nationals clubhouse and the D.C. community. He will support the work of the Academy by making regular...

The pitch from Kyle Finnegan, a 3-2 sinker to Gary Sánchez in the bottom of the seventh that appeared to split the outer edge of the superimposed strike zone on your TV screen, was called a ball by Carlos Torres. Sánchez trotted to first base, and nobody at Yankee Stadium thought much of his one-out walk during Friday night's game against the Nationals. If you've been watching closely this week, though, you understood the significance of that borderline call. And why it produced...

For the Orioles, the road to get back to the .500 mark is hard. Very hard. They have had seven tries since April 10, playing games where they were one game under .500. With last night's 6-2 loss to Boston, they are 0-7 in those games. The Orioles (15-17) had chances last night, going 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and leaving 10 men on base. They fell to 2-14 when scoring three runs or fewer. They have scored two runs or fewer in 11 of their 17 losses. So yep, frustrating. It was...

Left-hander Keegan Akin made his first start last night with Triple-A Norfolk, inserted into a rotation that he tried to leave behind for good last summer. Left-hander Bruce Zimmermann follows Akin tonight as the extended series continues in Jacksonville. Dean Kremer was the last rookie standing with the Orioles, having made it back from his option and preparing for Sunday afternoon's game against the Red Sox. He'll be joined tonight by left-hander Zac Lowther, whose second promotion brings...

Matt Harvey struck out J.D. Martinez tonight and extended the Orioles' streak of hitless innings to 10. John Means did the heavy lifting. Harvey was just following a tough act and trying to keep up. The Red Sox elevated Harvey's pitch count early, plated four unearned runs in the fourth inning and kept the Orioles below .500 with a 6-2 win before an announced crowd of 7,724 at damp and cold Camden Yards. Ryan Mountcastle led off the sixth inning with a home run, driving a full-count 99 mph...

The situation - runner on second, nobody out, late in a close game - felt eerily familiar. What happened next felt completely foreign for a Nationals club that has spent weeks trying everything in its power to manufacture some late runs and tonight broke through with an eighth-inning rally that provided as cathartic a moment as these guys have experienced in some time. Knotted in a low-scoring tie game with the Yankees entering the eighth, the Nationals didn't just plate the go-ahead run. They...

If he craves the biggest stage in baseball, it stands to reason that Max Scherzer would enjoy pitching at Yankee Stadium. It doesn't matter if it's the third incarnation of the historic ballpark. Everything about the place - the monuments in center field, the pinstriped players, the rhythmic cadence of the fans' roll call - is special. So why has the right-hander struggled - at least by Scherzer standards - in the Bronx and against the Yankees? Scherzer is 4-4 with a 4.34 ERA and a 1.531...