The All-Star break is over and Orioles baseball resumes tonight with the start of the second half of the season. Our Birds are back in action at Camden Yards this evening against the defending World Series champion Chicago Cubs for the first of a three-game series. It feels like it's been awhile since we watched a baseball game where the outcome was meaningful and significant. Not that I'm complaining about the All-Star Game no longer determining home-field advantage in the World Series. I...

Rarely does anyone ever try to claim the All-Star break came at a bad time. Just about every team in baseball happily takes the four-day midsummer hiatus offered to the entire league, uses that time to rest up physically and mentally and then returns recharged for the second half of the season. The Nationals certainly fall in that category. They limped a bit into the All-Star break, having played 36 games in 38 days, going 19-17 over that span, while also sending five key players to the...

Manager: Bryan Price (4th season) Record: 39-49 Last 10 games: 6-4 Who to watch: 1B Joey Votto (26 HR, 68 RBIs), SS Zach Cozart (.316/.394/.547), CF Billy Hamilton (38 stolen bases), RHP Raisel Iglesias (1.69 ERA, 16 saves) Season series vs. Nationals: 1-2 Pitching probables: July 14: LHP Gio Gonzalez vs. RHP Tim Adleman, 7:10 p.m., MASN2 July 15: RHP Max Scherzer vs. RHP Luis Castillo, 7:10 p.m., MASN2 July 16: RHP Tanner Roark vs. RHP Homer Bailey, 1:10 p.m., MASN2 July 17: RHP Stephen...

The Orioles begin the official second half of the season tonight, not the mathematical version, with a three-game series against a unique opponent. The Cubs are visiting Baltimore for only the second time, taking two of three games in 2003. It was so long ago, Rick Helling and Travis Driskill covered nine innings for the lone win on June 12. Driskill allowed one run in four innings to notch the save in a 6-1 victory at Camden Yards. B.J. Surhoff and Melvin Mora homered, Brook Fordyce collected...

As the Orioles begin the season's second half tonight, their win total is low but their doubters are many. The only way to change that is start piling more of the former, which would probably reduce the latter number. The team has reached a critical point in the season. While a playoff run seems unlikely, it's not too late, but a lot must be different starting now. It starts with the starters. The rotation has easily been the American League's worst and the overall staff ERA for the year of...

Manager: Joe Maddon (3rd season)Record: 43-45 Last 10 games: 4-6 Who to watch: 1B Anthony Rizzo (.259 with 20 HR, 56 RBIs), 3B Kris Bryant (.269 with 18 HR, 38 RBIs), C Willson Contreras (.261 with 65 hits), RHP Jake Arrieta (8-7, 4.35 ERA), RHP Wade Davis (2-0, 1.80 ERA, 16 saves) Season series vs. Orioles: First meeting (3-0 in 2014) Pitching probables: July 14: LHP Mike Montgomery vs. RHP Kevin Gausman, 7:05 p.m., MASNJuly 15: RHP Jake Arrieta vs. LHP Wade Miley, 7:05 p.m., MASNJuly 16: LHP...

Orioles manager Buck Showalter confirmed his rotation today for the next five games, including the previously unidentified starter for Sunday. Kevin Gausman, Wade Miley and Ubaldo Jiménez will work the three-game series against the Cubs that begins Friday night at Camden Yards. Chris Tillman and Dylan Bundy will face the Rangers on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, as the homestand continues. Bundy was shoved to the back of the rotation to provide more rest and the Orioles will try to find...

From July 3 to July 8, Nationals outfielder prospect Juan Soto played five rehab games for the Gulf Coast Nationals as he recovers from an ankle injury. He has been out of the low Single-A Hagerstown lineup since May 2. A club source told me the 18-year-old's reinstatement to the Suns is not imminent and he remains on the disabled list. Soto is ranked as the No. 95 prospect in Baseball America and is slashing .323/.385/.850. Double-A Harrisburg announced the Nationals have released outfielder...

CINCINNATI - The Nationals open the second half tonight with the first of four games against the Reds at Great American Ball Park in the second 2017 meeting between the teams. The Nationals have gone 38-42 against the Reds since moving from Montreal to D.C. before the 2005 campaign, and haven't won a season series against them since 2011, when they went 4-2. Since then, they're 16-17 against the Reds. Last season, Washington won two of three games on the shores of the Ohio River and dropped...

The Nationals will open the second half of their season Friday with at least one change to their roster. Struggling reliever Sammy Solís was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse, the club announced today. A corresponding move will be made before Friday's second-half opener in Cincinnati. Solís' demotion comes less than two weeks after he was activated off the disabled list following a long rehab from nerve inflammation in his elbow. The left-hander, who had been out 2 1/2 months, surrendered a...