Davey Martinez didn't want to throw Sean Doolittle to the wolves in his return from the injured list, but neither did the Nationals manager want to throw his rehabbing closer to the kittens. In the end, Martinez found a suitable middle ground for Doolittle to make his return Sunday afternoon: in the ninth inning, but with a six-run lead. Doolittle responded with a 1-2-3 frame, inducing three flyouts from the Marlins to wrap up the Nats' 9-3 victory and complete a series sweep. It was an...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Orioles have reinstated Mark Trumbo from the 60-day injured list, setting him up for his first major league action since Aug. 19, 2018. Trumbo is serving as the designated hitter today and batting sixth at Tropicana Field. Renato Núñez is playing first base. Chris Davis is situated among the reserves. DJ Stewart is in left field and Anthony Santander is playing center. Hanser Alberto is starting at third base and leading off against Rays left-hander Ryan...

The soft portion of the Nationals' schedule is now finished. They just went 4-1 against the Orioles and Marlins. Now, they've got 27 remaining games on the regular season schedule, 24 of which come against teams with winning records. It begins today with the opener of a three-game series against the Mets, who are kind of hanging on for dear life at this point, only two games over .500. Of course, we saw only a few weeks ago what they're capable of doing against the Nats, especially late in...

Left-hander Jonny Venters revealed he had surgery for a torn anterior inferior capsule in his left shoulder a couple of weeks ago and now begins rehabbing again. The 34-year-old Venters has gone through several Tommy John surgeries in his career and now faces another rehab, this time on his shoulder. He will wait until later in rehab to see if he will return to baseball or retire. "We will see how it defines itself," Venters said. "If it's good, I'll keep going. If it's not, then there's...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - After splitting two games in Washington and losing two of three in Kansas City, the Orioles have reached the final stop of this road trip. This afternoon they begin a two-day, three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays. The Orioles (45-91) lost the last two days by two runs each in Kauffman Stadium. The defense let them down Saturday and the bullpen did on Sunday. The Royals scored two runs in the last of the seventh to take a 5-4 lead and added a Whit Merrifield homer...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Watching the Orioles' Anthony Santander hit rockets around various ballparks in the second half of this season, it might be hard to imagine a day he tried to make it as a pitcher. Or a day when he was not a switch-hitter. But on a pregame interview yesterday on the Orioles Radio Network, Santander told me that as a teenager in Venezuela, he was trying to get a pro contract as a pitcher. And he didn't come to switch-hitting until a year before he entered pro ball. "I...

In this age of record-breaking strikeout totals, this should be a more common occurrence. But when Patrick Corbin notched his seventh strikeout of Sunday's game, he lifted the Nationals rotation into some awfully elite territory. Corbin joined Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg in surpassing the 200-strikeout mark for the season. That's three pitchers on the same staff with at least 200 strikeouts this year. And that hasn't happened very often in major league history. In fact, this is only...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Mark Trumbo is expected to have a locker inside the visiting clubhouse at Tropicana Field this morning as the latest roster addition for the Orioles. The reaction on Twitter will include such unique and classy gems as "Who cares?" and "It doesn't matter." Because ... Twitter. Well, try telling that to the Orioles. Try telling that to Trumbo, who's returning from a complicated procedure on his right knee one year ago that threatened to end his career without allowing...

Ryan Zimmerman danced in the dugout for the first time, only a short while after Anthony Rendon broke his longstanding club record for RBIs in a single season. Rendon's record-breaking hit - his third homer in less than 24 hours - drew more chants of "MVP! MVP!" from the crowd at Nationals Park. And during a pitching change, as "Circle of Life" played over the speakers and adult fans held their children up in the air a la Simba in "The Lion King," the camera cut to the dugout, where...

The Nationals remain cautious with Adam Eaton, who hurt his right knee Wednesday night and hasn't started a game since. But they remain optimistic the right fielder will be back in the lineup for Monday's series opener against the Mets. Eaton took a pitch off the area just below his right knee in the first inning of Wednesday's game against the Orioles. He briefly remained in the game, but after struggling to advance from first to third base on Anthony Rendon's subsequent double, he was...