WASHINGTON - The Orioles are coming off their fifth shutout of the season and trying to piece together their first four-game winning streak since March 30-April 2. Jonathan Villar is leading off and playing shortstop and Rio Ruiz is playing third base. Hanser Alberto is on the bench. Anthony Santander is in center field, DJ Stewart is in left and Trey Mancini is in right. Chris Davis is playing first base. Jace Peterson is batting fifth and playing second base. Asher Wojciechowski has made...

You wouldn't have expected the Nationals to find themselves in this position, but here they are, needing to win tonight to salvage a four-game season split with the Orioles in their annual interleague rivalry. For a team that's been red-hot against so many other opponents, the Nats haven't been able to take care of business against Baltimore the way you would have thought they would. The good news is that the Nationals have Max Scherzer on the mound. Even if he's still not 100 percent Max...

Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman played nine innings again Tuesday night in the high Single-A Potomac Nats' 8-5 loss at home to Myrtle Beach. It was the seventh game in this current rehab assignment for Zimmerman, who is recovering from plantar fasciitis in his right foot. Zimmerman went 1-for-4 with a single, sac fly RBI and a run scored. He is hitting .375 (7-for-20) during this seven-game stretch. The Nats could activate the 34-year-old veteran this week or wait until Sunday,...

WASHINGTON - The Orioles, after last night's 2-0 win at Nationals Park, go for a two-game series sweep tonight. The Birds have just one four-game winning streak this year and will have a four-game win streak with a victory tonight. The Orioles began this season with an opening day loss at Yankee Stadium and then won four in a row. They have not won four straight since. Tuesday night, Aaron Brooks threw six scoreless innings on two hits and now has allowed just one run in 11 innings his past...

WASHINGTON - On a night the Orioles shut out a hot-hitting Washington Nationals team and starter Aaron Brooks did the heavy lifting for six innings, right-hander Hunter Harvey's eighth inning will be the one remembered around Birdland for a while. Pitching in just his fourth big league game, the kid was called on to protect a 2-0 lead on the road in the eighth. And against a team that was 15-4 in its last 19 games scoring 143 runs. Harvey threw a couple of 98 mph fastballs to pinch-hitter...

The most telling quote to come out of the Nationals' clubhouse after Tuesday night's 2-0 loss from the Orioles wasn't about the surprising lack of offense from a lineup that had been unstoppable all last week. It wasn't about Patrick Corbin's rough first inning but strong bounce back after that. It wasn't about the squandered eighth inning rally. And it certainly wasn't the same line that was uttered by four different people to describe this strange loss: "That's baseball." No, the...

The first inning did not go Patrick Corbin's way, but it could have been worse. The Nationals left-hander allowed two runs to the Orioles in that first frame, but escaped the inning and then fired six scoreless innings. In the end, the Nats offense could not muster any runs against Orioles starter Aaron Brooks and four relievers as Baltimore stunned the Nats 2-0. Orioles third baseman Hanser Alberto went after Corbin's first offering, a 91.9 mph two-seam fastball, smacking the pitch into...

For nine innings the crowd at Nationals Park waited anxiously for the rally that was sure to come at some point. This was the Nationals lineup, after all, and this was the Orioles pitching staff, after all. It was going to happen at some point, right? The seventh inning? The eighth inning? How about the ninth inning? Nope. Nope. And nope. The Nationals, both the hottest team and owners of the hottest lineup in the majors at the moment, were shut out tonight by the Orioles, who most certainly...

WASHINGTON - The Washington Nationals are pushing for a playoff berth. The Orioles are just trying to get better, as individuals and as a team. Tonight, the last-place Orioles pulled off a baseball upset. The Nationals' expensive free agent lefty, Patrick Corbin, threw another strong game. But he was outdueled by an O's right-hander added July 6 on a waiver claim. Aaron Brooks silenced the red-hot Nats bats on two hits over six innings as the Orioles blanked Washington 2-0 in front of 24,746...

It seems that when Nationals left-hander Patrick Corbin ever gets into trouble, it happens early. The Orioles got to Corbin very early in Tuesday's series opener. Hanser Alberto singled on the game's first pitch. Corbin then hit Trey Mancini with a pitch. Anthony Santander doubled to deep left field to score Alberto and the Orioles led 1-0. One batter later, Jonathan Villar's line drive sacrifice fly to center field brought home Mancini to make it 2-0 Orioles. The Nationals looked like they...