The Orioles will send two rookie pitchers to the mound today as they host the Tampa Bay Rays in a doubleheader. This begins the last home series of the year for the Orioles, as the clubs will play five games in the next four days. Right-hander Dean Kremer (1-0, 1.64 ERA) will start Game 1 and Baltimorean Bruce Zimmermann will make his major league debut as the lefty starts Game 2. Zimmermann will become the fifth Oriole to make his major league debut in 2020 when he takes the mound. Since this...

Bruce Zimmermann was headed to Fort Myers to start a March 12 exhibition game against the Twins when the team bus circled the Orioles spring complex and returned. The game was canceled. The sport had shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. Zimmermann already made a positive impression on the Orioles and he's preparing for his major league debut in Game 2 of today's doubleheader against the Rays at Camden Yards. The Orioles will select Zimmermann's contract from the alternate camp site in...

The Orioles' improving rotation will see another young starter get his chance tonight. Left-hander Bruce Zimmermann, an Ellicott City product who grew up rooting for the Orioles, will get the start in Game 2 of the doubleheader with Tampa Bay. That is after another young pitcher, right-hander Dean Kremer, starts Game 1. And after another young pitcher, homegrown lefty Keegan Akin, threw five scoreless last night against a very strong lineup and first-place team in the Atlanta Braves. Akin is...

Baltimore native Bruce Zimmermann has been summoned from the alternate camp site in Bowie and announced as the probable starter for Game 2 of today's doubleheader against the Rays at Camden Yards. The corresponding roster move will be made following Game 1. Asher Wojciechowski has been designated for assignment and the Orioles recalled relievers Branden Kline and Evan Phillips from the secondary site. Phillips was added as the 29th man. One of the relievers could return to Bowie after Game 1...

It has been a very good return to the Nationals for Jake Noll this week. So far, he has gone 2-for-3 with a pair of singles against Tampa Bay as a pinch-hitter and designated hitter. Triple-A Fresno manager Randy Knorr, one of the many coaches working with players at the Nats' alternate training site, told manager Davey Martinez that Noll was improving a lot over the past two months on offense and defense. But what really got Martinez's attention was when Knorr spoke about how Noll was...

It was not a big surprise when we learned this week that Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has designs on making this year's expanded 16-team playoffs permanent. The reasons for this would start with a big one: money. Extra dollars are clearly generated and that benefits both players and owners. This also will allow for pennant races to include more teams. In 2019 we saw five playoff teams, and now there would be eight in each league. That is more than half of each league that...

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde is choosing between Renato Núñez, Pat Valaika and Ryan Mountcastle for the starts at first base as the final days tick down on the 2020 season. Núñez and Valaika more out of necessity this summer, Mountcastle as a way to get him comfortable again at the position and fit four outfielders in the lineup. Who's on first in 2021? Mountcastle is expected to keep getting most of the starts in left field. Valaika is more valuable in a super-utility role, with...

So much for a first-inning knockout. Orioles lefty Keegan Akin bounced back tonight in a big way from his early exit Friday night at Yankee Stadium. He set a career high with nine strikeouts in five scoreless innings and picked up his first career win as the Orioles beat Atlanta 5-1 to win the three-game series. It was the latest strong outing by Akin and the latest for an O's rotation that is making a nice late-season kick. Akin allowed three singles and walked one. He pitched out of jams...

Keegan Akin made it out of the first inning tonight, a relatively modest accomplishment except he couldn't do it in his last start. And he's young and inexperienced and therefore unpredictable. He had plenty of help while making that early exit. He had a short memory tonight. Akin's outing was more important than the game result in the grand rebuild scheme, but the Orioles got the best of both worlds. Akin shut out the Braves over five innings, striking out a career-high nine batters while...

Well, we've just about reached the home stretch of a most unusual, and most disappointing, season. This hasn't played out how the Nationals hoped, not even close. They're 18-29 with 13 games to go, so they'd have to win out just to finish with a winning record for the ninth consecutive year. That seems ... unlikely to happen. Plenty has happened, though. Most of it not very good. Some of it encouraging, though. Have we seen enough to get a sense of what might be in store in 2021? That's...