BOSTON - Left-hander Wade Miley will start Sunday afternoon's series finale against the Red Sox at Fenway Park, with Chris Tillman opening Monday night's series against the Mariners at Camden Yards. Miley has been away from the team for the past few days for a family matter, but the veteran pitcher will return over the weekend. "He'll be back tomorrow for the game and then the plan is for him to pitch on Sunday," manager Buck Showalter said. Tillman will start the following night unless...

Max Scherzer appears to be good to go Sunday against the Mets. Scherzer threw off the bullpen mound at Nationals Park this afternoon, the final step he said was necessary to be able to start a game two days later. The Nationals ace was in full uniform as he threw his bullpen session with pitching coach Mike Maddux alongside, standard practice for all members of the rotation in their between-starts routine. He didn't stop to take questions from reporters as he walked down the dugout steps and...

BOSTON - Orioles closer Zach Britton avoided the disabled list following yesterday's MRI on his left knee and he's encouraged by the results, which didn't reveal any structural damage. "It was good news," he said. "I think everything we thought it was going to be. Obviously, since the issue started in 2014, we never had an image on it and it was something that was probably a long time coming. I was just putting it off because it wasn't something that was affecting me pitching. But we had...

The Washington Nationals recalled right-handed pitcher A.J. Cole from Triple-A Syracuse on Friday and optioned catcher Pedro Severino to Syracuse. Nationals President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement. Cole, 25, returns to the Nationals after a one-start sojourn back with Triple-A. He will start on Friday night against the New York Mets. The right-hander, who is 1-3 with a 5.32 ERA in four starts for the Nationals this season, last started for the...

BOSTON - Chris Davis is batting sixth and Mark Trumbo is seventh for the Orioles' opening game of their weekend series against the Red Sox. Trey Mancini is in left field and Seth Smith is in right. Welington Castillo is catching. The Orioles are three games back for the second wild card. They're tied with the Rays for third place in the American League East. The Red Sox are 40-22 at home and the Orioles are 24-39 on the road. Utility player Garabez Rosa was the only member of Double-A Bowie...

The Nationals are back home this weekend after a long, eventful (and still successful) road trip through San Diego and Houston. If things went according to plan, Max Scherzer would have been taking the mound tonight to face the Mets. Things didn't go according to plan, though, and Scherzer has been slower to heal from his second neck injury in a month, now hoping to be ready to go Sunday at the earliest. So in his place tonight will be A.J. Cole, who makes his fifth big league start of the...

BOSTON - The Orioles made a roster move this afternoon that only partially had been anticipated. Mike Wright has been recalled from Triple-A Norfolk to replace Dylan Bundy, who's going on the bereavement list. Wright was scratched from his start yesterday in Game 2 of a doubleheader at Norfolk. He figured to be with the team in Boston, though the reasoning hadn't come to light. Bundy started on Wednesday against the Athletics and wasn't scheduled to appear in the weekend series at Fenway...

A few years ago, Houston Astros mascot Orbit began a friendly squabble with MASN's Dan Kolko. Orbit is known around the league for getting into comical situations with fans, players and teams. He has done everything from tiger hunting to holding interventions to having his own hot dog eating contest to escaping police custody! The past few times that the Nationals and the Astros have met in Houston, there have been plenty of hilarious altercations in games (and on social media) between Orbit...

HOUSTON - Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg managed to throw six scoreless innings against the top-scoring club in the major leagues Thursday night, despite having to deal with a cramp in his left calf as the game wore on. Strasburg began the sixth inning by striking out Derek Fisher and George Springer. He allowed a double to Alex Bregman, but then got Jose Altuve on a screaming liner that was caught by Howie Kendrick in left field to end the inning. Strasburg surrendered only three...

HOUSTON - The Nationals were teetering on losing the series against the Astros after Stephen Strasburg had put together six scoreless frames. Houston scored three runs on five hits in the final two innings to erase a 3-0 Nats lead. But the Nats then managed to come up with two huge runs to down the Astros 5-4 in 11. An Anthony Rendon sacrifice fly and a Matt Wieters RBI single gave the Nats a 5-3 lead in the 11th. J.D. Davis answered with a solo shot in the bottom of the inning, but Sammy...