The baseball postseason starts Sept. 29, and after a bizarre season defined by the coronavirus, there will be nothing normal about October baseball. First of all, there will be 16 teams instead of 10, more than half of Major League Baseball's 30 teams. The wild-card round, usually a dramatic one-game playoff, has moved to a three-game format with all three games played in the ballparks of the top-seeded three division winners in each league. After that, all games will be at a neutral...

The standings can't be ignored, no matter how much Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias is comforted and encouraged by prospect performance and the work done at the alternate camp site. How he judges a season includes production on the field. "It's very difficult for me to label any season a success where we have a losing record and don't make the playoffs," he said in today's Zoom conference call. "But I see enough positive things where we can a feel good that...

The Nationals are about to complete their sixth doubleheader of the season. That's a lot of twinbills in a normal year, let alone a 60-game season. And they've done just fine on these long days of baseball. They entered today with one sweep and four splits. And after taking the opener from the Mets 4-3, they have a shot at another sweep and at worst another split. All things considered, that's not bad. Aníbal Sánchez makes his final start of the season, and potentially his final start...

Josh Harrison broke a 3-3 deadlock with a drive to right field and the Nationals came back from an early deficit to upend the Mets 4-3 in the first seven-inning game of a Saturday doubleheader at Nats Park. In the bottom of the sixth, Harrison went after reliever Edwin Díaz's first pitch and laced it past Mets first baseman Pete Alonso into right field to score Brock Holt from third. Yan Gomes, making sure the ball fell before breaking for second, got forced out, but the Nationals had...

The Orioles return to Buffalo's Sahlen Field tonight for the next-to-last game of the 2020 season. It's the second of their three-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays, who beat the Orioles 10-5 last night. Toronto led that game 10-0 in the fifth inning and losing pitcher Jorge López allowed eight runs in two-plus innings. The Orioles scored the game's final five runs. Ramón Urías, Cedric Mullins and José Iglesias all hit solo homers. The O's have hit three homers in a game 11...

José Iglesias is starting at shortstop tonight in Buffalo after serving as the designated hitter and homering in the last two games. Ramón Urías has moved to second base, with Hanser Alberto now the designated hitter. Urías hit his first career home run last night and is batting .381 (8-for-21) with two doubles, a homer and three RBIs in nine major league games. Austin Hays is leading off and playing left field. He's a career .296 hitter (50-for-169) in 52 September games, with...

For a decade and a half, the Nationals tried in vain to establish continuity in their manager's office. But every two or three years, they found themselves searching for a new leader, vacillating between those with significant experience (Frank Robinson, Jim Riggleman, Davey Johnson, Dusty Baker) and those who were trying to make a name for themselves (Manny Acta, Matt Williams, Davey Martinez). In Martinez, they finally found the man they believe deserves to be here for the long haul. And...

The Washington Nationals have agreed to a multi-year extension with Manager Dave Martinez. Martinez, 56, is in his third season as the Manager of the Washington Nationals after being named the seventh field manager in team history on Oct. 30, 2017. Through a steady, unwavering approach, consistent strategy and never-ending positivity and support for players, Martinez led the Washington Nationals on an improbable run to the 2019 World Series Championship. "Three years ago when we selected Davey...

The Nationals and the Mets are scheduled to play two seven-inning games today as part of a doubleheader, thanks to Friday's postponement. Max Scherzer will start the first game. Aníbal Sánchez, already scheduled to pitch Saturday, will start the nightcap. Jacob deGrom to start game 1 for the Mets, who at 26-31 have a 1.2 percent chance of making the postseason. Scherzer enters today's final start of 2020 with a 4-4 record. He has not finished under .500 since going 9-11 with the Arizona...

He hadn't revealed this publicly before, but Howie Kendrick admitted Friday he fully intended to retire after the 2020 season. After a well-deserved victory lap on the heels of his World Series-winning home run, what more could the 37-year-old have needed to do on a baseball field? The time would've been right to say goodbye to the sport, head home to Arizona and enjoy life with his family. That was the plan. Before the pandemic. Before the shortened season. And before a nagging hamstring...