The versatility that Jace Peterson brings to the Orioles extends further than your typical utility player. He can start at any position except catcher and also blitz the opposing pitcher if given the signal. Steal a base, sack a starter. Just turn him loose. He'll figure it out. Baseball wasn't the extent of Peterson's athletic prowess at McNeese State. Besides setting the school record for stolen bases with 78 in three seasons, he also was a defensive back/linebacker on the football...

For the first time as an Oriole, right-hander Alex Cobb made it through the fourth inning. But in his third start with his new team, he didn't make it through the fifth. Cobb was hit hard in the fifth when he allowed four runs as the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Orioles 8-4 at Camden Yards. While the Rays have won five straight, the Orioles fall to 6-18 with their latest defeat. The Orioles have lost four in a row, 10 of 11 and 12 of their last 14 games. They are 3-8 at home and 4-7 versus American...

We'll never know how Alex Cobb would have responded this year to a normal spring training. To the usual progression from bullpens to exhibition games to opening day if he hadn't waited until March 21 to sign with the Orioles. Cobb's third start tonight had a rough beginning and finish, the end coming with two outs in the top of the fifth inning and a lead up in smoke as a light rain fell at Camden Yards. The Rays scored four runs off Cobb before Miguel Castro replaced him, and Jace...

SAN FRANCISCO - The flight home at the end of a three-city, nine-game, cross-country road trip is pleasant for no one. The Nationals were scheduled to land at Dulles International Airport at 2:20 a.m. this morning, but by the time they bused back into the city to retrieve their cars and then head home, they were looking at something like a 3:30 a.m. walk through the front door. If nothing else, at least they boarded that flight Wednesday night in San Francisco with the positive vibes that came...

SAN FRANCISCO - The hits would come, Davey Martinez insisted, as long as the Nationals kept giving themselves opportunities and had the right approach in key situations. The first-year manager is a relentless optimist, but he surely had developed more than a few doubters over the season's first month, especially over the last week while his club flailed away at what few scoring opportunities they had on the West Coast. And then, in a sustained display unlike anything else they had offered up...

Orioles right-hander Alex Cobb (0-2, 15.43 ERA) makes his first start as an Oriole at home and he will do so against his former team. For the first time ever Cobb pitches against the Tampa Bay Rays as the clubs open a rain-shortened, two-game series. Cobb has failed to complete the fourth inning in his first two starts, which came at Boston and Detroit. He went a combined seven innings allowing 20 hits and 15 runs (12 earned). He has allowed a .500 batting average (20-for-40) in those...

SAN FRANCISCO - The Nationals figured the best way to end their four-game losing streak was to send Max Scherzer to the mound for today's series finale at AT&T Park. Turns out the better strategy was sending a lineup featuring several backups and recent call-ups up to the plate against Jeff Samardzija and the Giants bullpen. Behind an onslaught of two-out hits with runners in scoring position, the Nationals blasted Samardzija and company during a 15-2 victory that, if nothing else, allowed...

The tarp has come off the Camden Yards field about three hours after the grounds crew unrolled it. A much better forecast for tonight's game. The Orioles are waiting for Tim Beckham to make a final decision on whether to undergo surgery after they placed him on the disabled list today with a left groin strain. Beckham saw Dr. William Meyers earlier today in Philadelphia - the sports hernia specialist who repaired a torn muscle in Nick Markakis' abdomen in January 2012. A similar procedure on...

As he joins his fourth major league team today, Jace Peterson will hit the ground running for the Orioles. He's going right into the starting lineup tonight, batting ninth at second base. Since opening day he has been called up by the New York Yankees, designated for assignment by New York, re-signed by the Yankees, DFA'd again and claimed on waivers by the Orioles. All that happened in a 16-day span. "Definitely been a wild ride," Peterson said this afternoon in the Orioles clubhouse....

The Orioles could be without third baseman Tim Beckham for a much longer period than the minimum 10 days of his assignment on the disabled list. Beckham saw a specialist today in Philadelphia and is expected to undergo surgery, perhaps by Thursday morning, after the Orioles put him on the DL with a strained left groin. Beckham is weighing his options, which would include rehabbing the injury. The procedure apparently would be similar to sports hernia surgery, but little information has filtered...