Orioles lineup vs. Blue Jays
Orioles lineup vs. Blue Jays
Roch Kubatko
Orioles
Chris Davis returns to the Orioles lineup tonight after sitting out the last two games in Houston. He's batting eighth again. The Blue Jays are starting right-handers in all three games of the series, so Davis could stay in the lineup. Richie Martin and Keon Broxton are on the bench. Jonathan Villar is playing shortstop with Hanser Alberto at second base and Stevie Wilkerson is in center field. Anthony Santander is playing left field and batting second. Catcher Chance Sisco is in the cleanup...
Rendon only fifth in early NL All-Star voting
Rendon only fifth in early NL All-Star voting
Mark Zuckerman
Nationals
CHICAGO - Anthony Rendon has an awful lot of ground to make up if he's going to even have a chance of being elected the National League's starting third baseman for the All-Star Game. Despite leading all NL third basemen in several statistical categories, Rendon currently ranks fifth at his position in the first round of balloting released today by Major League Baseball. That's the highest rank for any Nationals player so far. Brian Dozier is ninth among second basemen, with Trea Turner 10th...
Sánchez showing what he is capable of
Sánchez showing what he is capable of
Byron Kerr
Nationals
Right-hander Aníbal 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...
Rosenthal returns with scoreless ninth, Adams strains oblique
Rosenthal returns with scoreless ninth, Adams strains oblique
Mark Zuckerman
Nationals
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...
Shorebirds don't clinch yet as Orioles return home
Shorebirds don't clinch yet as Orioles return home
Steve Melewski
Orioles
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...
Sánchez cruises again, Nats bats explode in 12-1 win (updated)
Sánchez cruises again, Nats bats explode in 12-1 win (updated)
Mark Zuckerman
Nationals
CHICAGO - The Nationals signed Aníbal 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...
Martinez on picking DH, using Rosenthal again (Nats lead 4-1)
Martinez on picking DH, using Rosenthal again (Nats lead 4-1)
Mark Zuckerman
Nationals
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...
Tackling topics before tonight's game
Tackling topics before tonight's game
Roch Kubatko
Orioles
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...
Game 66 lineups: Nats at White Sox
Game 66 lineups: Nats at White Sox
Mark Zuckerman
Nationals
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...
Mancini 17th among AL outfielders in All-Star Game voting
Mancini 17th among AL outfielders in All-Star Game voting
Roch Kubatko
Orioles
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...