Orioles manager Buck Showalter remains encouraged this morning after checking on closer Zach Britton, who sprained his left ankle last night. Showalter doesn't know when Britton will pitch again and he's not revealing his choice of designated closer, but he's feeling good about the situation. "Like I did last night," Showalter said. "Not much swelling. You all talk to him yet? He'll talk to you about it. I think he'll be a pitcher shortly, hopefully." "It's the left one. Actually, I...

Had the Orioles won last night, today they would be looking for their first four-game home sweep of the Chicago White Sox since 1990. Instead, they merely need to beat Chris Sale to win the series. That figures to be tough, indeed. Sale is 5-0 with a 1.66 ERA this year in five starts. Over 38 innings he has allowed just 21 hits and eight runs (seven earned) with five walks and 32 strikeouts. Opponent batters are hitting just .159 off him. If those numbers are not impressive enough, over his...

Hyun Soo Kim, the first Korean-born player in Orioles history, is now batting .600 at 9-for-15 on the season. He has made four starts and gotten multiple hits in three of those games. A spring training that ended with the Orioles asking him to accept an assignment to the minors suddenly seems a long time ago. Not only did Kim go 3-for-4 last night, but he smoked a double to right field in the third inning. It was his first major league extra-base hit. Kim today explained the difference between...

ST. LOUIS - In their 11-plus seasons of existence, the Nationals have never found themselves in this particular situation: a chance to sweep a series in St. Louis. Shoot, they had only taken two of three once before at either version of Busch Stadium, back in 2007 when Manny Acta's club pulled it off. Today, though, the Nats are in position to do it. They won Friday night's game 5-4. They won yesterday's game 6-1. Now they'll send St. Louis native Max Scherzer to the mound in an attempt to...

Orioles closer Zach Britton said X-rays taken on his left ankle came back negative and he hopes to throw again in a few days. Britton jammed the ankle last night in the ninth inning. He exited the game and is on crutches this morning. He's also wearing a walking boot, but more so for a stimulation device to speed up the healing process. "After I flipped the ball to Chris, I just kind of felt something," Britton said. "I didn't know if I stepped wrong. ... It didn't feel like I rolled it...

Mark Trumbo is batting third for the first time this season and Adam Jones is hitting cleanup for the second time this year for the Orioles in the today's finale of a four-game series with the White Sox. In five career games from the three-hole, Trumbo is batting .368/.400/.526. Jones is a career .293/.331/.504 hitter out of the fourth spot. Nolan Reimold in left field and Joey Rickard in right field will flank Jones in center. Caleb Joseph is catching today. According to the Elias Sports...

When the Orioles take a one-run lead to the eighth inning, they usually feel pretty good about getting the win in that game. But this time, Darren O'Day gave up the lead and Zach Britton got injured. Not at all what the Orioles had in mind when they took the field leading the Chicago White Sox 5-4 in the eighth last night. The Orioles had been 10-0 in 2016 when leading after seven innings. Seeing the bullpen give it up and have its worst night of the year was about as strange as seeing Manny...

Zach Britton won't be taking the ball today if the Orioles are faced with a save situation. Not less than 24 hours after spraining his left ankle. He's day-to-day, but today isn't it. Who knows how long he's going to be sidelined? We hear "sprain" and expect an X-ray, to be followed by an MRI. That's how it always seems to play out. Let's see if we engage in the same dance on a sore ankle. The Orioles remained hopeful last night that Britton could avoid the disabled list. I already was...

ST. LOUIS - The calendar has shifted at last, the baseball season has entered its second month and the Nationals (unlike a year ago) are thrilled to have no reason to be shouting "Mayday!" right now. April could not have gone much better for the Nats, who at 16-7 are off to the best start in club history and the best start by any Washington ballclub since 1932. Sure, much of their success came against the likes of the Braves, Marlins and Twins. But they've kicked off one of the most daunting...

The Orioles finish the month of April with a 14-9 record and uncertainty over the status of their closer beyond an early diagnosis of a sprained left ankle. Zach Britton is day-to-day after jamming his ankle in the ninth inning, capping off the madness of an 8-7 loss to the White Sox in a game that lasted 3 hours and 42 minutes. Britton was receiving treatment and unavailable to the media. "We're going to have challenges during the year," said manager Buck Showalter. "We did a lot of good...