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Left-hander Gio Gonzalez gets the nod for the Nationals' most important game in 2017 and, really, in their franchise history to date. Gonzalez will be on the hill tonight for Game 5 of the National League Division Series against the Cubs.
Manager Dusty Baker could have easily given the start to right-hander Tanner Roark, who until late Wednesday morning appeared to be the planned Game 4 starter in Chicago. Right-hander Stephen Strasburg felt good enough to go after battling sickness for a few...
The Orioles have announced their spring training report dates and released the home portion of their Grapefruit League schedule.
Pitchers and catchers must report to the Ed Smith Stadium complex in Sarasota by Feb. 13, though they routinely arrive earlier. The full-squad report date is set for Feb. 18.
Ten different teams will provide the opposition on the 16-game home schedule, beginning with the Rays on Feb. 23 at 1:05 p.m. The Orioles finish the Sarasota portion with a March 24 game versus...
The Orioles today announced their 2018 Grapefruit League home schedule, which opens on Friday, February 23 when they host the Tampa Bay Rays at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, Fla. at 1:05 p.m. ET. The club will wrap up its Grapefruit League home schedule on Saturday, March 24, when the Orioles host the Minnesota Twins at 6:05 p.m. Pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report on Tuesday, February 13, while the full-squad report date is set for Sunday, February 18. The 2018 season will mark the...
The Nationals will hand the ball to left-hander Gio Gonzalez for tonight's deciding Game 5 against the Cubs in the National League Division Series at Nationals Park.
Gonzalez got a no-decision in Game 2, going five innings, allowing three runs on three hits with two walks and six strikeouts. The Nats used a five-run eighth inning to come back and beat the Cubs 6-3.
"Bottom line, we won," Gonzalez said. "The team won. We won together. I was just trying to keep us as close as possible in this...
CHICAGO - Jayson Werth has played in two do-or-die games before. Both came with the Nationals, both of them Game 5 in a National League Division Series, both of them ending in heartache.
Tonight might well be the last one of these the 38-year-old outfielder gets to experience. And because of that, more than a few of his teammates have made it known they're trying to win this October for one of the guys whose arrival in D.C. had the largest impact on taking this franchise to its current...
CHICAGO - A game removed from taking the blame for not catching the Cubs' game-winning bloop hit, Michael A. Taylor stepped to the plate in the eighth inning Wednesday night with rain falling, wind blowing and the bases loaded.
With the elements stifling fly balls at Wrigley Field, the only run of the game was the Nats' unearned run in the third inning. After Daniel Murphy's single off Jon Lester, who was pitching in relief, Cubs manager Joe Maddon opted to bring in Carl Edwards Jr., who...
CHICAGO - Stephen Strasburg rode the Nationals team bus back to their relocated downtown hotel following Tuesday's rainout at Wrigley Field, checked into his room, took some newly prescribed antibiotics and went to sleep. At that moment, what chance did the ailing right-hander think he had of taking the mound the next afternoon for a win-or-else ballgame against the Cubs?
"It wasn't much, to be honest," he said.
And then Strasburg woke up this morning, feeling like the antibiotics had made...
If the Orioles want to provide more rest for some of their veteran players next season, they could use better options on the bench.
If they intend to keep Rule 5 pick Anthony Santander, it's obviously going to influence the composition of their bench.
It shouldn't be hard to follow along.
Santander must spend the first 44 days of the season on the active roster before the Orioles can option him to Triple-A Norfolk without first running him through waivers and offering him back to the Indians....
He has only pitched 14 2/3 innings on the Orioles farm, but 24-year-old right-hander Pat Connaughton is eligible to be taken this December in the Rule 5 draft. Yep, that was fast. This will be the fourth Rule 5 draft since the Orioles selected Connaughton in round four out of Notre Dame in the 2014 draft and signed him to a bonus of $428,000.
With short season Single-A Aberdeen in 2014, Connaughton pitched to a 2.51 ERA and showed a fastball that touched 96 mph with secondary pitches showing...
CHICAGO - All the precautions they took with him earlier in his career, all the bumps along the way he dealt with that prevented him from taking the mound as much as he or the Nationals wanted, all of that meant nothing this afternoon at cold, raw, windy Wrigley Field.
Because with their season on the line, the Nationals handed the ball to Stephen Strasburg. And, after a chaotic and convoluted 24 hours during which he was pulled from the outing and then reinserted for the start, Strasburg...