The Orioles today announced that they have selected the contract of left-handed pitcher Ashur Tolliver from Double-A Bowie. Tolliver, 28, went 1-1 with a 2.42 ERA (7 ER/26.0 IP), two saves, and 25 strikeouts in 18 games with the Baysox this season, including holding left-handed hitters to a .212 batting average (7-for-33). Originally selected by the Orioles in the fifth round of the 2009 First-Year Player Draft, he went 9-9 with a 3.12 ERA (92 ER/265.2 IP), seven saves, and 253 strikeouts over...

HOUSTON - When Double-A Bowie manager Gary Kendall found out that left-hander Ashur Tolliver, a minor leaguer since 2009, was finally getting the call to the big leagues, he knew he had to do something special when telling Tolliver he was about to join the Orioles. When he has told players they were going to the majors in the past, Kendall usually calls them into the office and whole coaching joins him to pass on the good news. But this time, Kendall took it a step further. After all, he has...

As we saw last night, just because two starting pitchers are facing each other for the second time in six days, there's no guarantee the result will stay the same. And yet, the Nationals will be hoping for just that tonight when Stephen Strasburg faces Matt Harvey in a rematch of Thursday night's 9-1 victory for the Nats at Citi Field. They will hope Strasburg continues his torrid start to the season, which is really just a continuation of his torrid conclusion to last season. For those who...

Pitching coach Mike Maddux has brought new strategies with him from the Rangers to the Nationals. One such strategy is that he requires his starting pitchers to chart the game the day before their scheduled outing. Most of the Nationals starters did this when they were in college or in the minors, some more than others. The Nationals have a young starter in Joe Ross, who is mixed with veterans like Max Scherzer, Gio Gonzalez, Stephen Strasburg and Tanner Roark. All of the starters agree that...

The Orioles have chosen Tyler Wilson to make Wednesday night's start against the Astros at Minute Maid Park. The spot had been listed as TBD. Chris Tillman starts tonight in the series opener and Kevin Gausman closes it out Thursday night. The Astros are sending Doug Fister, Collin McHugh and Lance McCullers to the mound. The off-day Monday gave manager Buck Showalter the freedom to adjust the rotation. Wilson is 2-2 with a 3.68 ERA in eight games, including five starts. He'll be working on...

HOUSTON - Executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette sounds pretty high on all three of the pitchers the Orioles acquired last night. He provided some information on each hurler during a telephone interview this morning. In trading Brian Matusz to Atlanta yesterday, the club shed his salary and added two pitchers from the Braves. A third pitcher came in a deal with Cincinnati. The savings on Matusz can now be used in another way to the help the Orioles. The O's had to part...

One of the trickier elements of baseball analysis is figuring out the role of luck - or the absence thereof - in a player's output. When we look at Ubaldo Jimenez, and see that he has a 6.04 ERA in 2016, we can safely say that he's not this awful of a pitcher, and that he'll allow fewer runs as the season goes along. But how much will he improve? Has he remained the same from 2015, or gotten worse? For Jimenez, the story always seems to revolve around walks. He limited them last year,...

Sorry for the lack of the supposedly weekly Q&A last week. Because I didn't travel to Miami, there wasn't an opportunity to squeeze the feature in during the series in New York. But never fear, because we're bumping this up to Tuesday this week, and we're ready to answer all your questions on the Nationals. Ask about last week's Mets series. Ask about this week's Mets series. Ask about Bryce Harper's slump. Ask about Stephen Strasburg's attempt to improve to 8-0 tonight. (Just...

HOUSTON - If, as expected, the Orioles add Double-A Bowie left-handed reliever Ashur Tolliver to their roster today to replace the recently traded Brian Matusz, the move will very likely be popular among O's minor league staff and players. They will be excited to see a career minor leaguer get his shot. Tolliver is no pitching version of Crash Davis, but he has been hurling baseballs on the O's farm since 2009. He has never pitched above Double-A, but it looks like he will now. He's also...

Baseball, you probably have heard, is a game of constant adjustments. This is especially true on those more-frequent-than-you-think occasions when a starting pitcher faces the same opponent twice in a row. So when Gio Gonzalez faced the Mets tonight for the second time in five days, with Bartolo Colon facing the Nationals also for the second time in five days, the challenge for each side was clear: Make the necessary adjustments to change the outcome from the first head-to-head meeting. Which...