The Nationals got the offense going against right-hander Homer Bailey, who is making his first start of the season. He had surgery to remove bone spurs from his right elbow in February. Trea Turner led off the bottom of the first with a single and Brian Goodwin walked. After Bryce Harper struck out swinging, Ryan Zimmerman delivered a two-run double to make it 2-0 Nats. Daniel Murphy lined out to first base and Anthony Rendon was safe at first on a fielding error by Scooter Gennett. Matt...

The Orioles have been losing a lot lately, while Tampa Bay has been winning lately. The Orioles will try to reverse that trend this afternoon at Tropicana Field. The Orioles (35-38) have lost four of five and 22 of their past 32 games. Tampa Bay (40-36) is a season-high four games over .500 after winning five of six and 11 of its past 16 games. Tampa Bay is 10-3 in its last 13 home games. The Orioles send right-hander Dylan Bundy (7-6, 3.72 ERA) to the mound for his 16th start. After recording...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Reaching the majors hasn't been an issue for reliever Stefan Crichton. The goal now is to avoid the call into manager Buck Showalter's office and his travel papers. The Orioles recalled Crichton today for the sixth time this season. They needed a fresh arm and optioned Miguel Castro to Double-A Bowie. Crichton threw a scoreless inning Wednesday for Triple-A Norfolk. He qualified as fresh. The shuttle was waiting for him. "I think I'm starting to kind of get a little...

Nationals manager Dusty Baker has Michael A. Taylor back in the starting lineup for Saturday's late afternoon tilt with the Reds. It will mark Taylor's first start since June 20. He has missed the last few games due to an undisclosed injury. Taylor pinch-hit and struckout late in Friday's series opener against the Reds. "He's doing better," Baker said. "He's in there today. We decided it was better to keep him out and he hit yesterday in the cage. Much to my surprise I didn't know he...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Stefan Crichton has arrived at Tropicana Field, meaning he's the latest in a series of moves by the Orioles to freshen a tired bullpen. How the Orioles will accommodate Crichton on the 25-man roster remains to be seen. Update: Crichton has officially been recalled from Triple-A Norfolk. To make space on the 25-man roster, Miguel Castro has been optioned to Double-A Bowie. Second baseman Jonathan Schoop is batting third today, the third time in his career he's started in...

The Nationals look for a series victory today against the Reds after last night's dramatic comeback win. Down 4-0 and 5-1, the Nats slowly chipped away to ultimately drop the Reds 6-5 in 10 innings on a Bryce Harper RBI single. It was the Nats' 19th comeback victory of the season, meaning they have pulled off this feat for 43.2 percent of their wins this season. Brian Goodwin, who hit two homers in the game, said this club just has a penchant for not giving up, regardless of the...

There were no shortage of noteworthy developments in last night's 6-5 10-inning win. We've already addressed a few of them - the game-winning rally, Brian Goodwin's two-homer night, Stephen Strasburg's struggles in the humidity - but let's run through some more items of interest before turning the page to today's game ... * The Nationals bullpen was good. Really good. Like, five scoreless innings good. When Strasburg was pulled after five innings and 95 pitches, the notion that the Nats'...

Right-hander Stephen Strasburg was unable to get off to a good start Friday. He struggled in the first inning, allowing four runs on five hits as the Reds raced out to a 4-0 lead. The Nationals eventually came all the way back and stunned Cincinnati 6-5 in 10 innings. As Strasburg watched the comeback, he had a chance to reflect on the rough beginning. "Tough one. Obviously first inning was not great but I can try to go as long as I can and as hard as I can and they picked me up," Strasburg...

It takes a certain kind of mentality to bat second in the big leagues, where the job often is less about producing yourself and more about making sure the big boppers behind you get the best opportunities to produce with runners on base. That feeling is only magnified when the guy batting second is a rookie with 130 career plate appearances and the guys batting third, fourth and fifth are All-Stars and MVP candidates. Brian Goodwin has learned this in the last few weeks, a stretch during which...

When the Orioles announced two more draft pick signings on Thursday afternoon, that brought their total to 29 signed picks out of the 41 they selected in the recent First-Year Player Draft. That is an impressive total to have wrapped up this soon. This will definitely benefit the individual players. By signing fast, they can get their pro careers started sooner and begin learning the pro game and impressing their new organization faster. Signing quickly is almost always good for the player. So...