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Right-hander AnÃbal Sánchez is on a run. The veteran starter has won his last two decisions since returning from a hamstring injury. In three starts since May 29, Sánchez has allowed two runs in 17 1/3 innings on nine hits with three walks and 15 strikeouts.
On Monday night in the 12-1 win over the White Sox in Chicago, Sánchez struck out only one batter, but induced 11 grounds balls and nine fly balls to improve to 2-6. He faced 22 batters and used only 69 pitches. His ERA has...
CHICAGO - Davey Martinez wanted to find a low-pressure situation to ease Trevor Rosenthal back into a big league game, and with his team up five runs entering the ninth inning Monday night, this looked like a good situation to do it.
By the time Rosenthal actually entered from the right field bullpen, it had become a great situation to do it. The Nationals had tacked on six insurance runs in the top of the ninth, so now Rosenthal was able to pitch with a 12-1 lead.
Of course, that also...
Single-A Delmarva clinching its first playoff appearance in 14 years will have to wait at least until tonight. The Shorebirds were a few outs from clinching last night, but West Virginia hit a grand slam down three runs in the last of the eighth to stun Delmarva in a comeback 5-4 win.
So instead of wrapping up the first-half title in the South Atlantic League's Northern Division, the Shorebirds title will have to wait. Their magic number remains one with six games left. Delmarva was 34-1 when...
CHICAGO - The Nationals signed AnÃbal Sánchez over the winter because they believed the veteran right-hander could duplicate his bounceback 2018 season with the Braves by virtue of his ability to induce weak contact.
For six weeks, it looked like a colossal mistake. Sánchez couldn't get ahead of hitters, he couldn't keep himself from issuing free passes and he couldn't keep his ERA under 5.00.
A two-week stint on the injured list with a strained hamstring followed, and when...
CHICAGO - The Nationals' lineup wasn't exactly built with American League baseball in mind, but the lineup Davey Martinez will be fielding the next two nights in a quick interleague series with the White Sox certainly fits the profile.
Martinez recently has had room to start only two of the three players who make up the right side of his infield: Howie Kendrick, Brian Dozier and Matt Adams. That was less of a problem when Dozier was slumping or Adams was on the injured list, but now all three...
Rather than take a deep dive into my "mailbag," and I realize that I'm getting loose with the language when I refer to it as such, I've chosen to tackle a few prevalent questions. No real heavy lifting this morning.
Why are the Orioles wasting their international signing bonus slots instead of using them on the top foreign-born players?
Executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias was very clear with this point while addressing the crowd at FanFest. He wasn't going to spend just...
CHICAGO - Good afternoon from whatever this stadium is called these days. To me, it'll always be Comiskey Park. Or, actually, New Comiskey Park, since the original one was across the street. The Nationals make their third-ever trip here to the South Side, having won two of three both in 2011 ("The John McLaren Series") and in 2016 ("The Beat Up on Mat Latos and James Shields Series").
This is a different White Sox team, but just as they did last week in D.C., the Nats do catch a bit of a...
Major League Baseball released the first update on All-Star Game balloting in the American League and only two Orioles register in the top 10.
Trey Mancini is 17th among outfielders and Chris Davis is 10th among first basemen.
Mancini has received 100,457 votes to put him at a significant distance from leader Mike Trout, who paces all AL players with 951,002. George Springer is second with 776,352 and Austin Meadows is third with 468,111.
Davis has accumulated 70,010 votes. Luke Voit ranks...
The Orioles need rotation help at the Triple-A level. Their options have been limited due to the ineffectiveness of starters who otherwise would have been under consideration for promotions.
A move was made this morning to address the issue.
The club announced that it's acquired right-hander Tom Eshelman from the Phillies in exchange for international signing bonus slots. He's been assigned to the Norfolk Tides.
Eshelman, 24, has ties to executive vice president and general manager Mike...
On May 25, the Nationals were a fourth-place team, 21-31 and 10 games out in the National League East.
Since then, the Nationals have gone 9-4 to cut the deficit to seven games. They split four games over the weekend in San Diego.
It's not easy to pick up ground on four teams in one division.
But, it's only June. The NL East looks like a four-team race.
Philadelphia is holding on to first place despite standing-room-only with their relievers on the injured list. The Braves have added Dallas...