Ramón Urías ditched his crutches and is offering positive news on his sprained right ankle, including his readiness to begin baseball activities in a couple of days. Urías said earlier today that the ankle is feeling “pretty good” and “progressing fast.” “I’m walking now, it feels pretty normal,” he said while standing at his locker. “Hopefully can

PITTSBURGH – There wasn’t much for the Nationals to get excited about out of Thursday night’s game, a 9-4 loss to the Pirates in the opener of a four-game series. They didn’t get good starting pitching. They didn’t get good relief pitching. They got a couple of big hits in the top of the first, then nothing else the rest of the way. So the Nats wil

Dean Kremer is set to take his scheduled turn tonight for the series opener against the Rays at Camden Yards, avoiding the injured list after Jordan Beck’s line drive Saturday night slammed off his right forearm. Kremer registered three quality starts in a row before leaving the Rockies game after 3 1/3 innings with a huge welt above his wrist. The

If you read the comments section here or check anywhere where O’s fans make their feelings known - and they are not shy about that - there are many times the fans are frustrated with the Orioles offense. Like when they produce just one run against the lowly White Sox after scoring 22 runs in two games. Or score just 10 at Dodger Stadium. Or get 10

PITTSBURGH – The ball would have cleared the fence in any major league park, as any 419-foot blast to left-center field should. But if there’s one left-center field gap in baseball that might be big enough to keep such a drive in play, it’s this one at PNC Park, with its “North Side Notch” just to the left of the two bullpens. So when Andrés Chapar

Only in the heat of a pennant race with the regular season down to the last 21 games could winning two of three from the Rockies and White Sox seem unsatisfactory. They’re both painfully bad. The Orioles should have swept both series based on their talent and motivation. But the Rockies are better at home and the thin air messes with all logic. And

PITTSBURGH – The 162-game season is unforgiving. It rewards those who have both the physical and mental fortitude to deal with some adversity along the way and right their ship. It penalizes those who can’t bounce back when things start to go south. A number of prominent Nationals are experiencing the latter these days, stellar first halves undone

Dean Kremer did more than dodge the injured list, which alone was an impressive accomplishment. He’s starting Friday night in the series opener against the Rays at Camden Yards. The 103.1 mph line drive from Colorado’s Jordan Beck that slammed off Kremer’s right forearm in the fourth inning Saturday night at Coors Field raised a huge welt above his

PITTSBURGH – Davey Martinez has already tried moving CJ Abrams down in the lineup. Now the Nationals manager is trying to get his slumping shortstop some more rest in an attempt to get his hitting stroke back on track. Abrams is not in the Nats’ lineup for tonight’s series opener against the Pirates, the third time that’s been the case in the team’

PITTSBURGH – It would be hard to find a more striking difference in ballpark vistas than the one the Nationals just saw in Miami and the one they’ll see the next four days at PNC Park. And the weather here looks great, as well, aside from a chance of rain Friday night into Saturday morning. The Nats arrive in Pittsburgh after splitting their two-ga