DENVER - Keon Broxton already looks comfortable with the Orioles, smiling freely and spending part of today's pregame clubhouse time chatting with former high school teammate Josh Lucas at his locker. The new guy described his reaction to Wednesday's trade as "pure joy." He doesn't care about the standings. He just wants a chance to play and have fun. "I was excited just getting an opportunity to come out here and do what I love to do," he said. "I'm just ready to go. I can't wait for...

Returning from a shocking four-game sweep at the hands of the Mets, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo spoke prior to the series opener against the Marlins at Nationals Park. Obviously, it has not been a good week for the Nats and Rizzo. The Nats have not won a game since Saturday night, losing a season-high five games in a row. There has been a rush of talk on social media about the status of manager Davey Martinez. The club has lost 31 of its first 50 games of the season. But Rizzo is not...

DENVER - Keon Broxton has joined the Orioles and is starting in center field tonight for the series opening game against the Rockies. Broxton is batting sixth between Rio Ruiz and Hanser Alberto. Chris Davis is on the bench against Rockies right-hander Jeff Hoffman and Trey Mancini is handling first base. Stevie Wilkerson stays in the lineup as the right fielder and is batting second. Another game brings another new lineup, with Broxton added and no designated hitter for the series. Since going...

Baseball has turned into an all-or-nothing, strikeout-or-hit-a-home run game, but not all players are with the program. Check out the Dodgers' Cody Bellinger. In his previous two seasons, Bellinger has been all or nothing. In 2017, he hit 39 home runs with 146 strikeouts in 480 at-bats. The following season, the numbers were 25, 151 and 557. Now Bellinger, the son of former big league infielder Clay Bellinger, is turning back the clock. He's improved his strike zone discipline, shortened his...

The Nationals are mired in a season-high five-game losing streak and arrive back in D.C. to take on the Marlins, who are enjoying a season-high six-game winning streak. The Nats and the Marlins each have the same number of losses at 31. It is a four-game wraparound series culminating in an afternoon Memorial Day matchup. The Nats will send out right-hander Kyle McGowin (0-0, 6.00 ERA) to face right-hander Pablo Lopez (3-5, 5.06 ERA). This is McGowin's first start with the Nats in 2019. His...

The common refrain emanating from the Nationals clubhouse over the last several weeks has been one of optimism. As bad as things have gone, they to a man insist there's still time to salvage this season. Really, what else are they supposed to say? Nobody's going to publicly give up on Memorial Day weekend. And if you're a professional athlete, you have to believe anything is possible. It's the only way to be successful in that line of work. But we try to deal in facts here, and the simple...

So the Orioles had chances to win a couple of games in the series with the New York Yankees, but they went 0-4. They've now lost six in a row and take a 15-35 record into their game in Colorado tonight. As the losses mount, some fans in Birdland are venting, but to me, it appears a large segment of Birdland expected exactly this. They knew rebuilding would be painful in the won-loss column and they actually get it. They want to see some positives and they have and they are not yet getting too...

While I'm not aware of any scientific studies on the topic, I'm certain that most pitchers love to hit. Or think that they can. You'll stumble across a few exceptions, much like the haters trying to get out of the batter's box. Former Orioles left-hander Wei-Yin Chen is 7-for-98 with 42 strikeouts and he comes by it honestly. He'd rather step on broken glass in his bare feet than step to the plate. John Means would walk on broken glass to get to it. OK, that might be an exaggeration, but...

Down to their final six outs to avoid a four-game sweep, the Orioles bat came to life today. They tied the game. But that just led to another frustrating loss when right-hander Mychal Givens walked in the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth. The New York Yankees won 6-5 to complete a four-game sweep and improve to 7-0 this year at Camden Yards and to 10-2 versus the Orioles with nine straight wins. They've won 12 in a row in Baltimore dating to last year. Givens came on in the ninth after the...

The Orioles had to believe that today would be different. They rallied for four runs in the eighth inning to tie the game, the last three coming on Renato Núñez's homer, the ball jumping off a resuscitated bat. Gleyber Torres and Gary Sánchez came off the bench in the ninth and settled for a walk and single, respectively. That's tame stuff. But that's how the Orioles began to drift toward another loss and a four-game sweep. Mychal Givens also walked DJ LeMahieu and Aaron Hicks to...