ATLANTA - Ryan Zimmerman continues to crush baseballs since his return from a second bout of plantar fasciitis in his right foot. The 34-year-old drilled a three-run homer off of Luke Jackson in the eighth inning Friday night in the Braves' 4-3 win over the Nationals. It was Zimmerman's fifth homer of the season and second in the past five days. "I feel great," he said. "I think the body feels really good, I feel like I'm moving around pretty well. My first few at-bats, like I said,...

When Orioles right-handed reliever Dillon Tate took the ball in the ninth last night, he pitched for the first time in the majors against the team that drafted him. He faced the Texas Rangers, who selected him No. 4 overall in the 2015 draft out of California-Santa Barbara. Tate showed them some good stuff. He kept the Orioles down 7-6 with a scoreless 15-pitch inning with two strikeouts. He topped at 95 mph and got three swings and misses on three changeups. Acquired by the Orioles last July...

ATLANTA - For the second game in a row, the Nationals had trouble scoring runs against a Braves left-handed starter. On Thursday night, Max Fried tossed seven shutout innings and struck out nine in a 4-2 Atlanta win. Friday night, Dallas Keuchel (7-5) kept the Nats off the board for six innings, guiding the Braves to an early 2-0 advantage. Josh Donaldson added a two-run shot off of Wander Suero in the seventh. The veteran third baseman connected on a curveball. Ryan Zimmerman unleashed a...

SALISBURY, Md. - Single-A Delmarva manager Kyle Moore didn't worry when the Shorebirds offense was a little slow out of the gate Friday night in Game 2 of their South Atlantic League semifinal series against the Hickory Crawdads. The way Gray Fenter was dealing gave the bats ample time to adjust and wake up. "Our offense does that, has done that a lot," Moore said. "They kind of feel them out the first three innings and so we usually beat teams in the fourth, fifth and sixth. So I wasn't...

Another game passed last night with Austin Wynns unable to swing the bat beyond the usual cage work. He's healthy and he's ready, but the life of a third catcher on an expanded September roster can be filled with idle time. There's the fast lane and then the cell phone lot. Wynns hasn't received a plate appearance with the Orioles since Game 1 of a June 1 doubleheader against the Giants. He caught an inning on July 19, two in the nightcap of Tuesday's doubleheader and one last night after...

With his team playing so many close games, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde keeps relying on the same set of relievers rather than diving into the expanded area of his bullpen. It works at times. Tonight wasn't one of them. The Orioles couldn't hold a two-run lead in the seventh inning, with Paul Fry unable to throw strikes and Shawn Armstrong unable to save him. And the quest to match last season's win total stalled again. The Rangers scored three times in the seventh after Dylan Bundy exited...

ATLANTA - Nationals reliever Roenis Elías is dealing with a right hamstring injury suffered late in Friday night's opening 4-2 loss against the Braves. Manager Davey Martinez said they will wait on the MRI until Saturday to check on Eliías' hamstring. "He feels OK. He's really sore," Martinez said. "We haven't gotten an MRI yet because until the swelling goes down it's really going to reveal really nothing. Hopefully by the end of the day tomorrow we'll get an MRI." "I felt a...

SALISBURY, Md. - Beneath the third base stands at Arthur W. Perdue Stadium, the sound of bat meeting ball is keeping beat with Waka Flocka Flame's epithet-rich "50K Remix." Before each swing, Dan Radison's right arm snakes around a screen, feeding a pitch to a waiting batter. Over and over, Radison simulates a low, drivable offering, and over and over, faux line drives are sprayed across an oblong cavernous chamber surrounded by a mesh screen that offers little in the way of...

The row of lockers against one wall in the home clubhouse at Camden Yards is the setting for a Triple-A reunion. The expanded roster has allowed pitchers Ty Blach, Chandler Shepherd, Branden Kline, Tanner Scott, Evan Phillips and David Hess to get back to Baltimore. Dillon Tate is assigned a corner locker that leads to the hallway outside manager Brandon Hyde's office, but he already had been recalled. Hyde is starting the next wave of auditions with the relievers, who are handed a clean slate...

Mason Williams gets the start in center field as the Orioles continue their series against the Rangers. Trey Mancini is playing first base. DJ Stewart is in left field. Anthony Santander is batting .415/.415/.854 (17-for-41) with three doubles, five home runs, 12 RBIs and six runs scored during his 10-game hitting streak. He's in right field tonight. Hanser Alberto continues to lead the majors with a .417 average versus left-handed pitching. He's atop the order tonight. Rule 5 shortstop...