The second opinion sought by Orioles reliever Richard Bleier offered further confirmation that he sustained a Grade 3 tear of his left lat muscle, the most severe, and he must undergo surgery Tuesday in New Jersey. "Obviously, it's pretty unfortunate for myself and the team," he said today while standing at his locker. "The next step is just hopefully a successful surgery and moving on from there." Bleier didn't do anything out of the ordinary to sustain the injury. He threw one pitch to...

TORONTO - Matt Adams, as surmised, is not in the Nationals lineup this afternoon. Now the club can only wait to find out how many more games (if any) the slugger is going to need to miss with an injured left index finger. Adams, who was struck by a pitch while squaring around to bunt Friday night, had an X-ray taken after the game, the results of which appear to have been inconclusive. Manager Davey Martinez said, "it didn't really show much." "You can't even tell," Martinez said when...

Orioles reliever Richard Bleier will undergo surgery Tuesday in New Jersey to repair a Grade 3 tear in his left lat muscle. He won't pitch again this year and may not be ready for the start of the 2019 season. Dr. Anthony Romeo will handle the procedure, which was recommended after Bleier underwent an MRI on Thursday morning and received a second opinion. Bleier said the pain was so severe after he threw a pitch Wednesday that it felt like he had been shot in the back. He didn't know that he...

Trey Mancini is starting at first base today while Chris Davis stays on the bench for the Orioles' second game of their series against the Marlins. Davis has sat out the last four games. He joined Manny Machado and Pedro Álvarez on the field today for early hitting. The session including hitting coach Scott Coobaugh tossing the ball underhanded from close range and each player driving the ball to the opposite field. It ended with vice president of baseball operations Brady Anderson throwing...

TORONTO - The Nationals' unfamiliarity with Rogers Centre cost them during Friday night's 6-5 loss. Perhaps now that they've experienced this unique ballpark a little bit, they won't be victimized by it in the second game of their weekend series with the Blue Jays. It doesn't hurt, of course, to have Max Scherzer on the mound. The ace has made four prior starts here in his career, and all he's done is go 3-0 with a 1.98 ERA, 32 strikeouts and only five walks. And this was the Detroit...

TORONTO - Matt Adams finished the at-bat, and he played another inning in the field, but deep down the Nationals first baseman knew his left index finger was in no real condition to continue playing after it was struck by a pitch in the top of the second Friday night. "I mean, I knew from the get-go it was bad, but I wanted to do everything I could to stay out there," he said. "I don't like coming out of the games and putting other guys in a tough position. So, tough situation." Yes, and...

The Orioles offense seems to be relentless in its pursuit of being bad. They've faced lefties and righties, experienced and inexperienced pitchers, hurlers from the American League and the National League, and they have failed to produce much against most. A day off did nothing to revive things. The 2-0 loss to Miami on Friday night means the Orioles have been shut out eight times this year. That includes twice in the last four games and four times in the past 15 games. The offense has been...

One man's torn latissimus dorsi muscle is another man's opportunity to become an established major league reliever. It sounds harsh, but it's also baseball reality. No one is celebrating Richard Bleier's season-ending injury, and that's especially true of Tanner Scott. They're friends who sat next to each other in the clubhouse. They traded playful insults while I sought their opinions on the movie "The Sandlot" for a MASN pregame segment. Scott had to be highly upset by the news of...

TORONTO - The ball came off Teoscar Hernández's bat, went high in the air toward right field and left just about everyone inside Rogers Centre assuming it would fall harmlessly into Adam Eaton's glove for the first out in the bottom of the seventh. Alas, both Eaton and Gio Gonzalez knew otherwise. Because each knew the same thing: They had no clue where the ball was, hidden somewhere in the post-9 p.m., mid-June Canadian dusk. "As soon as it goes up, it's a pretty helpless feeling,"...

No team in the majors has scored fewer runs than the Orioles. They needed eight more before tonight to catch the team ahead of them, the Marlins, their opponent for a weekend series at Camden Yards. The only fireworks were coming after the game. And there isn't enough smoke to mask the Orioles' primary weakness. The Marlins manufactured a run off Kevin Gausman in the fifth inning to break a scoreless tie, padded their lead in the sixth and handed the Orioles their eighth loss in a row, 2-0,...