It is an exciting day for any organization when one of its top prospects arrives in the majors. And the big day for the Orioles and Ryan Mountcastle arrived Friday versus Boston. He walked twice and was part of a late rally, but the Orioles lost 8-5 as their losing streak reached six. But this was not just another game for the player or the team. The Orioles did a wonderful job providing messages broadcast on the MASN telecast and on social media from Mountcastle's family wishing him well....

Major League Baseball keeps trying to proceed through the 2020 season as if there's been the slightest tweaks to it rather than a complete overhaul. The number of games, the restrictions in travel, the roster sizes, the taxi squads, the alternate camp sites, the rule change in extra innings, the expanded playoff field. But other than that ... The Baseball Writers' Association of America is going to hand out its annual awards. As if it's any other season, except with statistics attached to...

Ryan Mountcastle was introduced tonight as making his major league debut, stepped to the plate at Camden Yards to lead off the bottom of the second inning and heard the roar of the fake crowd. What a story to tell his grandchildren someday. Mountcastle didn't tip his helmet or leave the box to gather his emotions. He dug in, took a few big swings that produced foul balls and a 1-2 count, and watched the next three pitches to draw a walk. The arrival of the No. 5 prospect in the system provided...

When the Marlins' Miguel Rojas smacked a three-run homer in the second inning Friday night, some had to worry that this might be a repeat of what happened to Nationals left-hander Patrick Corbin in his previous start. On Aug. 15, Corbin allowed the Orioles to score two runs in each of the first two innings on their way to a 7-3 victory over the Nats in Baltimore. But Corbin returned to vintage form this time around, shaking off that early home run, and bewildering the Marlins into the seventh...

All night long, they waited for their lineup to strike. It felt like it was going to happen eventually, right? Someone would get a rally going against the Marlins bullpen and bring the Nationals back from the one-run deficit they had faced nearly the entire game, right? Well, no. It never happened. And so another eminently winnable ballgame was won not by the Nationals but by their opponents. Held to two early solo homers by Yan Gomes and Trea Turner, the Nats were silenced the rest of the...

Orioles prospect Ryan Mountcastle makes his major league debut tonight as the Orioles host Boston at 7:35 p.m. Mountcastle, the 2019 International League MVP and O's Minor League Player of the Year, will bat sixth and play in left field. Last year at Triple-A Norfolk, he batted .312/.344/.527 with 35 doubles, a triple, 25 homers, 83 RBIs and an OPS of .871. He led the International League in hits (162) and total bases (274). Here is where Mountcastle has been ranked over the years by Baseball...

Ryan Mountcastle isn't here to sit. Orioles manager Brandon Hyde inserted Mountcastle into tonight's lineup, giving one of the organization's top prospects the start in left field and batting him sixth. And Mountcastle is going to stay busy, including the possibility of making some starts at first base with Chris Davis on the injured list. "I'm going to play him a lot," Hyde said today in his Zoom conference call with the media. "He's playing left field tonight. We're going to give him...

Ryan Mountcastle is starting in left field tonight and making his major league debut. He's batting sixth. Pedro Severino is the designated hitter and batting fourth. Chance Sisco is behind the plate. Mountcastle's first act as a major league player was to spend almost nine minutes on a Zoom conference call with the media. Here's a sampling: On his reaction to the promotion: "I was just chilling in bed and Gary Kendall gave me a call around 10 o'clock in the morning and let me know that I...

Stephen Strasburg's follow-up exam with a hand specialist confirmed the Nationals' initial diagnosis of carpal tunnel neuritis. The veteran right-hander and the club are still discussing a course of action to address the injury, but manager Davey Martinez acknowledged surgery is a possibility. "I'm going to talk to him, see what his options are and what he wants to do," Martinez said this afternoon during his pregame Zoom session with reporters. "But I think it's something that's going...

The Orioles placed first baseman Chris Davis on the 10-day injured list this afternoon to make room for Ryan Mountcastle on the active roster. Davis is bothered by left knee patellar tendinitis, according to the team's press release. Mountcastle is wearing uniform No. 6 and waiting to make his major league debut. The lineup hasn't been posted for tonight's game against the Red Sox. Davis didn't play again last night and is slashing .122/.173/.184 with three doubles, three walks and 16...