Baseball is almost back! Opening day is coming up in just two short days, and MASN is giving you the chance to celebrate the return of baseball with new prizes and swag! Visit the MASN tent on Eutaw Street and try your hand at our prize wheel! Select fans will be taking home exclusive new T-shirts with Gary Thorne's signature home run call. In addition to tons of prizes - including koozies, tumblers and schedule posters - MASN will also be hooking you up with "social snapshots." Round up...

With a new manager and a new philosophy come the inevitable questions of how Davey Martinez will construct the lineup of a Nationals club that has won its division two years in a row. Last season, many second-guessed then-skipper Dusty Baker about where he put Anthony Rendon in his lineup. Why was Rendon hitting so low in the lineup when he could consistently put the ball in play? Wouldn't you want one of your best hitters to get as many at-bats as possible per game? Martinez showed a few...

The Orioles today announced a $300,000 pledge to local charities in support of the club's Birdland Community Heroes program. The donation total includes a combined pledge of $100,000 from the Orioles Charitable Foundation to the 2018 season's Birdland Community Heroes' related charities, as well as $200,000 to the charities of those Heroes honored in prior seasons. On Opening Day, Thursday, March 29, the Orioles are welcoming back all previous Birdland Community Heroes to take part in a...

Ryan Zimmerman's retrospective spring training statistics will look pretty threadbare - one game as a designated hitter on March 2, two at-bats and a double off the Mets' Hansel Robles. In a city where intrigue and conspiracy theories are a part of everyday existence, everyone seems to have their own belief as to why the first baseman became a Grapefruit League ghost. Some whisper that Zimmerman is hiding an injury or working away from prying eyes on something that's gone wrong in his swing....

It is the butterflies-in-the-tummy-worthy moment. That moment you walk back into Nats Park and you see the boys in red and white taking pregame grounders and batting practice. Baseball is back in D.C. today as the Nationals face off against the Minnesota Twins in one last exhibition game before they travel to Cincinnati for Thursday's opener against the Reds. The pitching matchup: Left-hander Gio Gonzalez (1-1, 4.30 ERA) vs. Right-hander José Berríos (2-1, 1.69) New manager Davey...

NORFOLK, Va. - He was a popular pregame interview on Monday afternoon in Norfolk. That would be 23-year-old Orioles catcher Chance Sisco. He was the Tides' regular catcher last season, but this time he was just making a visit to Harbor Park. Sisco won the job as the Orioles No. 2 catcher in spring. A lot of the defensive work he put in during his time in the International League last season is paying off now. Being in Norfolk again reminded Sisco that his game took nice steps forward when he...

The time is nearly here. After a quick stop back home to unpack and face the Twins in this afternoon's exhibition game, the Nationals head to Cincinnati and open this season of significance Thursday against the Reds ... weather permitting. (The forecast in the Queen City calls for a 100 percent chance of rain on opening day, then more rain the rest of the weekend. Can't wait!) Byron and Pete will have you covered at the ballpark today, but before things get going down there I figured I'm...

NORFOLK, Va. - The teams combined to score seven runs over the last two innings as the Orioles beat Triple-A Norfolk 7-6 today in front of 9,181 at Harbor Park. For the Orioles, the long exhibition season is over. They finished with four wins in their last five, going 18-12-2. They were happy that no one got hurt this afternoon and they got to spend some time showing appreciation for their top affiliate. They did so in the chill of Harbor Park, where it was 46 degrees at first pitch. Now...

Yesterday we went through the events and promotions portion of the new 2018 lineup at Nats Park. Today we're going to take you through all the new features, concessions, retail and memorabilia concepts, and programs around the ballpark. There are some special activations throughout Nats Park for today's exhibition game today against the Twins to help fans combat the chilly forecasted temperatures. First pitch will be at 4:05 p.m., and tickets are still available at nationals.com/Tickets. This...

Pedro Araujo received the news that he made the Orioles' opening day roster as a Rule 5 pick and promptly served up a home run in his next appearance. Because that's baseball. It's unwise to read too much into one appearance in spring training, and that includes how Araujo was burned by Williams Astrudillo's two-run shot in the ninth inning in a 12-4 loss to the Twins, but it probably brought a certain measure of comfort to the Orioles when the right-hander retired the side in order...