First baseman Chris Davis and catcher Welington Castillo are sick and may not be available for the Orioles' series opener tonight against the Angels at Camden Yards. A team physician was checking on both players before making a determination. In the meantime, manager Buck Showalter isn't going to broadcast the availability of his players and whether they've been sent home. "I won't get into the city in which everybody gets sick in, but they're not the only two," Showalter said. "A lot...

So much for easing Rule 5 pick Anthony Santander into major league action. Santander is starting in right field tonight, making his major league debut after playing last season with Single-A Lynchburg in the Carolina League. The switch-hitter is batting seventh against Angels left-hander Andrew Heaney. The Orioles lost Joey Rickard's right-handed bat after optioning him on Wednesday. They have Craig Gentry in left field and Trey Mancini at first base, with Mark Trumbo serving as the designated...

The Nationals can be viewed as either one of the luckiest teams in baseball or one of the unluckiest. But there is a third option and that is that general manager Mike Rizzo knows what he is doing. I would have said before this season that if the Nationals don't have a deep playoff run, Rizzo is as good as gone as GM. There are just some GMs, good enough to rebuild a team but not good at putting those final pieces in place to win it all. Rizzo has started to look like the latter, but this...

Thoughout 2017, Orioles fans have spent the majority of the season waiting for Chris Davis to look like Chris Davis. The slugger has played in 91 of the team's 121 games this season, slashing .221/.316/.426 with just 18 home runs and 46 runs batted in. We keep anticipating that surge, the stretch of games where Davis reels off homers in bunches, but so far it hasn't happened like we all became used to in the past. Davis hit 38 homers a season ago and a major league-leading 47 in 2015. He is...

SAN DIEGO - If it's not the first line of Edwin Jackson's baseball-playing obituary, it won't be much farther down from the lede. The most memorable game of Jackson's career, whenever it's finally over, almost certainly will be his June 25, 2010 no-hitter with the Diamondbacks. A no-hitter that included eight walks and a staggering 149 pitches. That game, more than any other, has come to encapsulate Jackson's long career. He's always had some of the best stuff in the sport, but even at...

Outfielder Austin Hays of the Double-A Bowie Baysox continues to rake. He was promoted in the middle of June from Single-A Frederick to Bowie and his stats have gotten better at the higher level. A case can be made that Hays is having as good of a season as any player on any team in the minor leagues in 2017. He ranks among the top 10 among all minor league players at all levels in several key stats. He is second in all of the minors in Weighted Runs Created plus, topping obviously all but one...

SAN DIEGO - A jet-lagged Nationals lineup struggled all night at the plate against the Padres, not only to record hits in their series opener, but simply to make contact. Then one big blast from Ryan Zimmerman made up for all the swings and misses and lifted his team to a late-night victory. Zimmerman's opposite-field homer in the top of the eighth snapped a longstanding deadlock and gave the Nationals a 2-1 lead they managed to preserve thanks to more dominance from their new-look bullpen. It...

SAN DIEGO - Despite putting himself into several jams, Edwin Jackson has managed to minimize the damage so far in tonight's start at Petco Park. Jackson, on the mound for the Nationals in their series opener against the Padres, has surrendered five hits - including three doubles - through four innings, but has allowed only one run to cross the plate. Jackson pitched around a leadoff double to Wil Myers in the bottom of the second, and completed that inning having thrown only 17 total pitches...

SAN DIEGO - Nationals vice chairman and principal owner Mark Lerner, the most visible member of the franchise's family ownership group, revealed tonight why he has been absent from public view for much of the season: Lerner has been battling cancer in his left leg for months and recently needed to have the limb amputated above the knee. "Thanks very much for your concern and good wishes," Lerner wrote in a letter provided to MASNsports.com through a club spokeswoman. "I know you recognize...

SAN DIEGO - Just when the Nationals appeared to have to solved their bullpen woes, one of their recently acquired arms has gone down with an injury. Ryan Madson was placed on the 10-day disabled list today with a sprained right index finger, an injury that is not believed to be serious but will nonetheless sideline the club's new setup man for the time being. Shawn Kelley, who already had been close to returning from a long rehab assignment, was activated off the DL and is available out of the...