WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Right-hander Mason Denaburg, the Nationals' 2018 first-round pick in the First-Year Player Draft, is making very good progress in his first spring training. The 6-foot-4, 195-lb. right-hander did side work Saturday in preparation for his first live pitching session Tuesday. He threw 40 pitches Saturday and now will have two days off. Denaburg will pitch in a live simulated game Tuesday where he will throw fastballs, changeups and curveballs. He gets six days off between...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Alex Anthopoulos first fell in love with Aníbal Sánchez in December 2012, when the then-Blue Jays general manager flew to Miami to court the then-free agent pitcher. Over the course of two days, Anthopoulos met Sánchez and his wife, dined at Joe's Stone Crab and became convinced this was a pitcher he needed on his roster. "I was just really impressed with the person and the human being," Anthopoulos said earlier this spring. "He was our No. 1 target in that...

SARASOTA, Fla. - Orioles right-hander Alex Cobb said he'd never done it before and it was, in his words, "a gametime decision" yesterday. What he did was pitch from the stretch for his entire 69-pitch outing. Where he could have chosen to pitch from a full windup with no runners on base, he just stayed throwing from the stretch position. He went out and had four dominant innings against a Toronto split squad lineup that featured maybe only two or three regulars. But he was dealing. He struck...

SARASOTA, Fla. - The arrival of another Sunday signals a third round of roster cuts. A pattern has developed with reductions the past two Sundays. There could be four or five players optioned or reassigned this morning. Forty-six players remain in camp. Pitcher Gregory Infante never reported and continues to seek treatment in Miami for an undisclosed illness. The Orioles could hold onto all five of their catchers while Austin Wynns remains unavailable with an oblique injury, but he's hopeful...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - It's easy to take Sean Doolittle for granted, because he's been so automatic for the Nationals when healthy the last 1 1/2 seasons. Maybe Doolittle even takes himself for granted sometimes, especially during a spring in which he had retired 12 of the 13 batters he had faced before taking the mound in the ninth inning this afternoon. The left-hander won't do that anymore, not after a disastrous appearance that saw him allow five runs and turn a 5-3 lead into an 8-5...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Despite allowing an early run, Nationals ace Max Scherzer was his regular season self Saturday as the club gets closer and closer to opening day. Scherzer threw 87 pitches, 63 for strikes over six innings, allowing only a first-inning run to the Cardinals. The Nats built a 5-1 lead, but the Cards came back late to post an 8-5 win. Scherzer struck out nine, walked none and at one point retired 14 batters in a row, getting into a nice rhythm with his new backstop, veteran...

DUNEDIN, Fla. - If spring training is for working on things for certain veterans, Orioles opening day starter Alex Cobb sure did that today. And we might see more of his experiment. In a game the Orioles won 4-3, he pitched from the stretch throughout his 69-pitch five-inning outing against the Toronto Blue Jays at Dunedin Stadium. He was rolling with it, throwing a no-hitter for four innings before allowing three runs in the fifth. He liked how it went so much that we could see more of this....

DUNEDIN, Fla. - Orioles manager Brandon Hyde still doesn't yet know or is not ready to announce anything for his starting pitching rotation beyond Alex Cobb as opening day starter and that the next two will be Andrew Cashner and Dylan Bundy in some order. But asked today again if the Orioles would consider the use of an opener, Hyde didn't say yes or no, just that it is an option and remains on the table at this point. "We are talking about a lot of different things," Hyde said before...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - With the injury to outfielder Michael A. Taylor, the Nationals will have to make some adjustments to the lineup with spring training winding down. Manager Davey Martinez opted to go with Wilmer Difo in center field for today's game against the Cardinals. Difo has played in 248 games at infield positions for the Nats over the past four seasons, but only seven games in the outfield. That doesn't faze Martinez, who has tremendous confidence in Difo's athletic ability to...

SARASOTA, Fla. - Players who didn't make the trip to Dunedin today might have to move their workouts indoors at the Ed Smith Stadium complex. The rain that's been falling all morning picked up in intensity, shifting into downpour territory around 9 a.m. It's finally let up, but the fields are soaked. Reliever Evan Phillips boarded the bus and is scheduled to pitch against the Blue Jays while trying to extend a scoreless streak that's reached seven innings over his six appearances. He's...