April has come and gone for the Nationals, and nobody can say they saw the season's first month playing out the way it did. A COVID-19 outbreak sidelining nine players? Injuries to Juan Soto and Stephen Strasburg? An implosion by Patrick Corbin? A complete lack of production from Josh Bell and Kyle Schwarber? There were, of course, surprisingly positive developments as well. Who expected Joe Ross and Erick Fedde to become consistently dominant pitchers? Josh Harrison and Yadiel Hernandez to...

The Baseball Writers' Association of America doesn't begin casting votes for major awards in April and early May. No season is truncated to such a length that it happens. John Means isn't clearing space on a shelf for his Cy Young Award. He's entering a premature discussion without clicking on any links. The talk surrounds him. It's building. And he's doing his best to ignore it. I guess Means has no one to blame but himself. That'll teach him to go 3-0 with a 1.70 ERA, 0.838 WHIP and...

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde watched César Valdez wiggle out of a jam last night to preserve the slimmest of leads, tossed a few compliments at his closer and pointed out how it would be easier on everyone if his club didn't skimp on the runs. "It would be nice," Hyde said, "to score a couple more to give a little breathing room in the ninth for all of our pitchers." Matt Harvey stepped out of the dugout for the bottom of the third today with a six-run lead. A direct path to the mound...

The Orioles are excited to see their young minor league players on the field starting Tuesday for many reasons. They had a strong preseason camp in Florida leading to Friday's release of the break-camp rosters. The organization feels a farm system that is now ranked fifth by MLBPipeline.com and seventh by Baseball America is robust. Final roster decisions were tough. "I think what is interesting is, you can look and see how much the organization has changed in terms of depth of talent over...

The Nationals don't need Patrick Corbin to be elite right now. They would happily settle for solid. Which is precisely what he was today during a 7-2 victory over the Marlins. With seven innings of two-run ball, Corbin turned in the exact kind of performance the Nationals have been seeking from their erratic left-hander since the season began one month ago. He wasn't in peak form, but he displayed improved command of his fastball and slider and provided length to help take pressure off the...

With back-to-back one-run wins over the New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics under their belt, the Orioles take the field today at Oakland looking to move to within a game of the .500 mark. It's the second game of a three-game series and six-game trip to face the top two clubs in the American League West. With Friday's 3-2 win over Oakland, the Orioles (12-14) improved to 8-4 in road games. Their .667 road winning percentage is tied for the second-highest in the AL and tied for fourth-best...

Freddy Galvis has returned to the Orioles lineup today, batting seventh against the Athletics in Oakland. Galvis, previously out with a sore left adductor, is batting .348/.400/.630 (16-for-46) in his last 15 games. He slashed .115/.179/.154 (3-for-26) in his first seven. "He got off to a slow start offensively," manager Brandon Hyde said today in his Zoom call. "Really, like the last week to two weeks before he had a little bit of the groin soreness, I think you started seeing better...

Stephen Strasburg and Juan Soto each took another step toward returning to the Nationals roster prior to today's game, Strasburg throwing off the bullpen mound for the first time since he landed on the 10-day injured list and Soto continuing to throw in right field to test out his strained left shoulder. Both players are now eligible to be activated off the IL, but both still have additional steps they need to take before the club makes the move, especially in Strasburg's case. Strasburg, who...

A quick turnaround from a night game to a day game is never easy, but when it comes on the heels of a walk-off win, it does at least brighten everyone's mood a little bit. So the Nationals have to be feeling pretty good about themselves after Friday night's 2-1, 10-inning victory over the Marlins, capped by Kyle Schwarber's 454-foot blast to right-center. In order to keep the good vibes going, they'll need Patrick Corbin to give themselves a chance to win today. Once this season, the...

Suddenly, they are the cardiac Orioles. They lose a ninth-inning lead against the New York Yankees, but beat them in 10 on Thursday. They travel across the country, almost lose a lead in the last of the ninth at Oakland but beat the first-place A's for the second time in a row. One guess as to which pitcher started both games? It was John Means on the mound when the Orioles beat Oakland 8-1 last Sunday, snapping their 13-game winning streak. It was Means back out again, this time on the West...