The Padres put big hitter Hunter Renfroe in the starting lineup Saturday afternoon against the Nationals. Renfroe, playing left field today, reached out and made solid contact on a Sean Doolittle changeup last night to propel San Diego to a 4-3 win in the series opener. In the second inning Saturday against Nats right-hander Stephen Strasburg, Renfroe crushed a 1-2 changeup over the left field wall. The two-run shot was his sixth on the season. Strasburg has four strikeouts through three...

Nationals manager Davey Martinez elected to give veteran Howie Kendrick the start in today's second game of three against the Padres. Anthony Rendon was hit by a pitch in his elbow last weekend in Miami and then last night got hit in his left quad with another pitch, so the third baseman is not in the starting lineup. "Yeah, I talked to him after the game," Martinez said. "He was a little sore. So, I like to have him available to pinch-hit late in the game." Martinez confirmed it was...

MINNEAPOLIS - As the Orioles try to beat the Minnesota Twins for the first time this year and snap a 10-game losing streak against them dating to last year, their task got tougher early in today's game. The Orioles' top player, Trey Mancini, left the game with an apparent hand injury. Two pitches before Mancini blooped a single to center in the top of first, it appeared he fouled a ball off his hand. He ran to first after the single that extended his hitting streak to nine games. But after a...

MINNEAPOLIS - After missing Wednesday's game in Baltimore due to personal reasons, Chris Davis rejoined the Orioles in Minnesota Friday. But he did not get the start against left-hander Martín Pérez. Davis is batting seventh and playing first base today against right-hander José Berríos. This is all part of a plan by manager Brandon Hyde to put Davis in the best spots to get his bat going. And it is starting to work. Over his last eight games, Davis is batting .360 (9-for-25) with...

The Nationals look to get back in their series with the Padres on Saturday as they send San Diego native Stephen Strasburg to the hill to slow a skid of five losses in their last seven games. Strasburg did quite well Sunday in Miami, pitching eight shutout innings, allowing two hits and striking out 11 in a 5-0 Nats win over the Marlins. Strasburg is 2-1 with a 4.11 ERA. His last start at Nats Park against the Padres was May 27, 2017, when he tossed seven innings and struck out a career-high 15...

The Orioles will try to end a streak of 10 straight losses to the Twins when they meet again this afternoon at Target Field. Chris Davis has returned to the lineup. He left the club Wednesday to attend to a personal matter and was on the bench last night, but he's batting seventh against Twins right-hander José Berríos. Trey Mancini had three more hits last night and is 14-for-34 with five doubles during an eight-game hitting streak. He's in right field today, with Dwight Smith Jr. in...

MINNEAPOLIS - The Orioles play the second game of their three-game series and six-game road trip this afternoon at Minnesota. The Twins hit five homers and won 6-1 last night at Target Field. Minnesota (14-9) is off to its best 23-game start since the 2010 team went 15-8. Their best-ever start at this point of a season was 17-6 in 2001. The Twins have hit 42 homers on the year, and 16 have come against Baltimore in four games. They've had games of three, eight and five homers this year versus...

MINNEAPOLIS - The Minnesota Twins went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position last night. But it didn't matter, because the Twins hit five homers and got a solid starting pitching performance. The Orioles didn't homer and right-hander Alex Cobb struggled again. Cobb said he felt fine physically. That was even after he took a spill on the mound trying to field a grounder up the middle in the last of the first. But after that spill, Minnesota hit three straight homers off him to start the...

Max Scherzer had to deal with an unusual injury - a strained ribcage muscle suffered when he dodged a foul ball in the dugout - and that alone made this a strange week and disrupted his typical preparation for Friday night's start against the Padres. But Scherzer being Scherzer, there was a more important task at hand all week: Fix whatever it was that led to his ragged performance the last time he took the mound, when he was roughed up for seven runs and 11 hits by (of all teams) the...

Carter Kieboom made his debut with the Nationals a night to remember. He kept the Nationals in the game with a dramatic home run. In the ninth, he came close to giving them the shot to win it. As he said before the game, three years ago he was in high school finishing an art project. Now he is in the big leagues, and delivering a big hit. Kieboom went 1-for-4 with a home run and two strikeouts. He held his own on defense at shortstop. The home run will be one to remember for a long time. With...