The Orioles hit the All-Star break after today's game in Minnesota, which will end not only the first half but a four-game series and a seven-game road trip. The Orioles will hit the break in a very different situation than a year ago. At the 2016 All-Star break, they were 51-36, leading the American League East by two games and sending five players to the Midsummer Classic. This year, they are 41-46 and tied for fourth in the AL East with Toronto. They are 8 1/2 games back of first place....

MINNEAPOLIS - Jonathan Schoop is back at second base today as the Orioles conclude their road trip and the first half. Rubén Tejada is starting at shortstop. Hyun Soo Kim is in left field and Caleb Joseph is behind the plate. For the Orioles Seth Smith RF Manny Machado 3B Jonathan Schoop 2B Adam Jones CF Mark Trumbo DH Trey Mancini 1B Hyun Soo Kim LF Caleb Joseph C Rubén Tejada SS Ubaldo Jiménez RHP For the Twins Brian Dozier 2B Robbie Grossman DH Max Kepler RF Miguel Sanó 3B Jason...

If you're searching for silver linings from Saturday's 13-0 drubbing at the hands of the Braves - an admittedly difficult proposition - how about Tanner Roark's relief appearance? It may not have done anything to help put the Nationals in position to win the game, but on a personal level it was a positive development for Roark, who needed one in the worst way. The end result - three runs allowed in five innings - wasn't especially notable, but Roark looked (and felt) like a much different...

The final day of the first half of the 2017 season has arrived, and while it may feel like this day has come quickly, it also comes at the end of a particularly difficult portion of the schedule for the Nationals. They had 37 games scheduled in the last 38 days - one of those was Wednesday night's game that was postponed - and during this time they've seen Jayson Werth, Trea Turner, Michael A. Taylor, Koda Glover and Shawn Kelley all land on the disabled list. The Nationals' record during...

Saturday's game was already out of hand before Sammy Solís ever took the mound at Nationals Park. The Braves held a 9-0 lead after eight innings, so this was supposed to be nothing more than an opportunity for Solís to get some work in and further distance himself from a long stint on the disabled list. And then over the course of one agonizing inning of (to be honest) meaningless baseball, Solís wound up creating more questions about his status and what the Nationals should do with...

MINNEAPOLIS - The Orioles understand that they can't make up all of this lost ground in one or two games. With one or two swings. With a few quality starts. You spend that much time digging a hole, you don't climb out of it in a couple of seconds. "One game at time, don't think about yesterday," said Jonathan Schoop, who enabled the Orioles to improve to 1-0 yesterday with him as the starting shortstop. "Today we have to win. Now don't think about today. Come back tomorrow trying to win...

So maybe there is one downside to the plan. He can never be a winning pitcher. But other than that, there is a whole lot to like about the Orioles' 2017 development plan for pitcher Tanner Scott, a left-hander who can touch 100 mph. Mostly a reliever previously in his pro career, the 22-year-old Scott has been making starts of three innings this season for Double-A Bowie. That gives him more innings to throw and work on all of his pitches, and also a between-outings bullpen session to work on...

First things first: Stephen Strasburg says he feels fine after taking a comebacker off his right hip in the top of the third inning today, and says that won't impact his ability to pitch in Tuesday night's All-Star Game. The decision to remove Strasburg from the game at the end of that inning, with the Braves already leading by six runs and on their way to a 13-0 drubbing of the Nationals, was made by manager Dusty Baker and pitching coach Mike Maddux, not the pitcher himself. Though Baker...

What does one make of "Tenth of December" by George Saunders? I wished to turn away from most of these short stories. There was horror, fear and a real uneasiness in trying to just survive reading these works. Characters were undergoing real physical and emotional pain of the deepest sort. I went to other sources to see what others felt about this book. NPR stated in a review: "... that what we assumed was a nightmare is, in fact, our new reality. It also proves that Saunders is one of...

They didn't get the start they needed from Stephen Strasburg. They didn't get the defense they needed to aid their All-Star pitcher. And they didn't get the offense they typically have produced against Julio Teheran. The Nationals didn't do much right this afternoon, and so the ensuing result - a 13-0 whitewashing at the hands of the Braves - shouldn't come as much of a surprise. In a fairly uninspired performance, the Nationals got down early to Atlanta and never put forth a serious...