ATLANTA - It doesn't rank with the back-to-back Cy Young Awards he owns, but the back-to-back National League Pitcher of the Month awards Max Scherzer now owns could help his cause to win a third straight Cy Young. Scherzer was named NL Pitcher of the Month for May this afternoon, this honor coming on the heels of his comparable award following an equally dominant April. The Nats ace went 4-0 with a 2.21 ERA and 63 strikeouts in six starts in May, numbers deemed by voters to be better than the...

Following a month in which he went 4-0 with a 2.21 ERA (10 ER/40.2 IP) and 63 strikeouts against just 10 walks, Nationals right-handed pitcher Max Scherzer was named the National League Pitcher of the Month for the second consecutive month on Saturday. Major League Baseball made the announcement on MLB Network. Scherzer, 33, led the National League in strikeouts (63) and strikeouts per 9.0 IP (13.94) in May. He also ranked in the top three in the National League in opp. OBP (2nd, .238), WHIP...

Joey Rickard gets a turn today as Orioles leadoff hitter for their game against the Yankees. Rickard is in right field against Yankees right-hander Masahiro Tanaka. Danny Valencia is playing third base. Mark Trumbo continues to bat cleanup. Chris Davis moves down to seventh. Kevin Gausman started against the Yankees on April 6 in the Bronx and allowed two runs in five innings. He's 7-5 with a 3.53 ERA in 23 games (17 starts) against the Yankees. Brett Gardner is 14-for-42 (.333) with three...

ATLANTA - The Nationals have scored two runs in this series and have been shut out on four total hits over the last 15 innings. That's not good. This is a lineup that, given the injuries and young players filling in on a regular basis, has been very hit-or-miss over the last month. It'll need to swing back into the hit category today if these guys want to avoid a third straight loss to the first-place Braves. On paper, the matchup against Brandon McCarthy looks like a better one for the...

ATLANTA - Some odds and ends to get you going on this Saturday morning before the Nationals and Braves return for a 4:10 p.m. game at SunTrust Park ... * The bottom of the seventh last night, in which the Braves scored all four of their runs, obviously was the decisive inning of the game. How rare, though, was that outburst against Stephen Strasburg? Extremely. Though many longtime fans will recall how Strasburg used to struggle in Atlanta, the right-hander had completely reversed that...

It has not exactly been an organizational mandate or philosophy, but the Orioles have selected more high school players than college players in the first five rounds of the draft over the last five years. High school kids can have more upside and can get to the majors at a younger age, sometimes than their college counterparts, who may be 21 or older in some cases when drafted. According to this report from Baseball America, the Orioles selected a high school player with 59.3 percent of their...

ATLANTA - Stephen Strasburg felt like he made only one mistake, a curveball down in the zone but over the plate to Dansby Swanson with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Then again, one mistake was all it took for the Nationals to drop tonight's game to the Braves, who rode a two-hit shutout from Mike Foltynewicz to a 4-0 victory and a second straight win to begin this weekend's National League East showdown. "We couldn't get nothing going," manager Davey Martinez said. "Our guy was...

There will come a point later this month when the Orioles' bullpen includes Zach Britton and Darren O'Day. Together at the same time. Maybe it's not too late to produce dual bobbleheads for the occasion. Britton hasn't pitched this season after undergoing Achilles surgery back in December. O'Day's been on the disabled list since May 6 after a teammate ran into him in the bullpen and hyperextended his right elbow. (A perfect symbol of the 2018 season.) If the Orioles stick with a seven-man...

A shot up the middle deflects off Andrew Cashner's glove and finds the grass in center field. A fly ball to deep center hits the heel of Adam Jones' glove as he attempts a leaping catch, his face smacking into the padded fence as the tie-breaking run scores on a triple. Same inning. Same result at the end. The Orioles couldn't catch a couple of balls or any breaks. They also couldn't score much against struggling Yankees starter Sonny Gray, who held them to one run over six innings in a 4-1...

ATLANTA - For six innings they dueled, Stephen Strasburg and Mike Foltynewicz posting up zero after zero, neither willing to give in on a muggy Friday night at SunTrust Park. Somebody, though, had to give in at some point. That somebody was Strasburg. And that point was the bottom of the seventh, the decisive frame that turned a brilliant pitchers' duel into a 4-0 Nationals loss to a young Braves team that can only feel emboldened after taking the first two games of this big weekend...