ST. LOUIS - Some news and notes to cleanse your palette before the Nationals and Cardinals return to action this afternoon for their series finale ... * Howie Kendrick's fourth-inning homer Tuesday night was big because it helped set the tone for an eventual 6-2 victory, but it also was historic. Kendrick's solo blast to center was the Nationals' 215th home run of the season. That ties the franchise record. Which was set only two years ago. But still. Home run records are being set left and...

If you want an example of leadership by example, watch the Orioles' Trey Mancini. He may not be a vocal leader and may not be a teammate that would air another out for any reason, but he sure plays hard. All the time. Every inning. Every game. It's great leadership for young players. As the losing continues and the club is making costly mistakes almost every night, Mancini has been a constant in a positive way. He hit .355 with a 1.023 OPS in March and April to show the way early on, and...

Renato Núñez felt the ball slam into his left hand Monday afternoon, spun out of the batters' box and measured the levels of pain and anger. Bones tend to shatter in these circumstances, especially in the part of the hand that absorbed the pitch from Tigers reliever Buck Farmer. Núñez stayed in the game and X-rays were negative, but he remained on the bench last night in the Orioles' 8-5 loss to the Blue Jays at Camden Yards. Mark Trumbo was available to play after being scratched...

ST. LOUIS - "Late and close" has not been the Nationals' forte in recent weeks. When they've won, they've won by a sizeable margin. When they've been in a tight battle late, they've tended to lose. Evidence of that? They entered tonight's game against the Cardinals having used a reliever in a ninth-inning save situation only once in a calendar month. The situation simply hadn't come up. Chip Hale has been prepared for it to happen. And given how little current closer Daniel Hudson has...

Starting on Aug. 2, right-hander Mychal Givens went 15 straight games without allowing a homer. Now he has yielded a longball in back-to-back games in the ninth inning, and a home run allowed tonight helped beat the Orioles. Justin Smoak homered onto the flag court to lead off the ninth as Toronto beat the Orioles 8-4 with four runs in the ninth. It's the opener of a three-game series and the final homestand of this year. Cavan Biggio's two-run triple in the ninth made it 7-4. That hit gave...

The Orioles used their power tonight to take an early lead while attempting to win the first game of their series against the Blue Jays. They switched to a small ball approach to tie the score. Anything that might work for them. Don't live and die by one method. Trey Mancini proved again that he could handle both of them. But his work was wasted. Too many mistakes and one 95 mph fastball that was launched deep into the night. Disconsolate yesterday after striking out on three pitches to leave...

ST. LOUIS - Kurt Suzuki took a full round of batting practice early this afternoon at Busch Stadium and also caught Aníbal Sánchez's bullpen session, but the Nationals catcher is still days away from being cleared to throw and test his injured right elbow. Suzuki, who hasn't played since feeling a tingling sensation in his elbow after trying to throw out a basestealer Sept. 7 in Atlanta, did take some important steps today in his recovery and was cautiously optimistic about his...

ST. LOUIS - Davey Martinez has been released from the hospital and has returned to his home in Washington, but doctors have not yet cleared him to travel, so the Nationals manager will miss at least his team's three-game series against the Cardinals. Martinez, who felt chest pain during the sixth inning of Sunday's win over the Braves, was taken to a D.C. hospital, where he underwent a cardiac catheterization Monday. He won't need any more procedures, according to general manager Mike Rizzo,...

The tightness in Mark Trumbo's upper back and neck area that caused him to be scratched from yesterday's lineup has subsided and he's available to play tonight, according to the veteran outfielder and Orioles manager Brandon Hyde. The club announced yesterday that Trumbo had a strained left trapezius. "Upper back, something tightened up and it just wouldn't cooperate by the time that the game came around," Trumbo said. "So with this many extra guys, I felt like somebody else was probably...

ST. LOUIS - There's going to be a lot of scoreboard watching tonight - and pretty much every night over the next 12 days - as four teams (the Nationals, Cardinals, Cubs and Brewers) go down to the wire to secure the three remaining postseason berths available in the National League. There's one thing the Nationals can do, however, to make life easier on everyone: Win tonight's game. Every day the Nats win a game from here on out is a day they get closer to locking up a wild card berth....