The Orioles are sticking with their right-handed lineup tonight against White Sox southpaw John Danks. Joey Rickard is in right field, Nolan Reimold is in left and Mark Trumbo is the designated hitter. Adam Jones moves down to fifth, with Chris Davis batting third and Trumbo fourth. According the Elias Sports Bureau, Rickard is the first player in the majors to debut on opening day and start the first 20 games since the Braves' Jason Heyward in 2010. The last Oriole was second baseman Marv...

April 28, 2012 is date every Nationals fan will remember forever: Bryce Harper's major league debut. Today, when Harper takes the field against the Phillies, it marks the fifth anniversary of his debut, a 4-3 10-inning loss for the Nationals at Chavez Ravine against the Dodgers. Batting seventh and playing left field, he went 1-for-3 with a double, sacrifice fly and an RBI. The Nationals ended up going 81-58 in games he played during the 2012 campaign. Harper did well that day, but when asked,...

The Nationals are looking to snap a three-game losing streak against Philadelphia today as they wrap up their series with the Phillies with an afternoon matchup at Nationals Park. This is also the first time the Nationals have lost two in a row at home this season. Right-hander Tanner Roark (2-2, 2.63 ERA) takes on right-hander Aaron Nola (1-2, 4.50). Roark is 2-5 with a 6.91 ERA in seven games (five starts) in his career against the Phillies. In his career, Roark loves to pitch at home, going...

The Orioles snapped their three-game losing streak last night with a 3-1 victory at The Trop against the Rays on an Earl Weaver special. Rookie Joey Rickard delivered the much-needed three-run homer in the fifth, while Chris Tillman's impressive start kept the Rays bats cold. The O's righty tied a career high with nine strikeouts on the night that he would move past Jeremy Guthrie on the team's all-time starts list (154). Next up is Mike Boddicker (180), but Tillman will have a tough...

It's time to have a talk with Mike Rizzo and Ted Lerner. This isn't about Rizzo's option. With how last season played out, I don't blame them for waiting until as late as possible to pick up the option of a general manager that is, deservingly, on the hot seat. This is about the Nationals offense, Kris Bryant and Maikel Franco. Your first thought might be, "Yes, the Nationals offense would be better if they had either of those two playing third," but this isn't about that either. This is...

In the 2014 season, Chris Tillman went 13-6 with a 3.34 ERA. How many times this winter did we discuss that he needed to return to his 2014 form for the Orioles? Well, we have seen him make five starts so far and he is 2-1 with a 3.24 ERA. He gave the Orioles a huge effort last night with 6 2/3 scoreless on two singles against Tampa Bay. The Orioles offense got one big swing from outfielder Joey Rickard, but almost nothing else. Tillman made that stand up. Tillman tied his career high with nine...

Since I'll be in the air on the way to St. Louis tomorrow morning, and since I won't be at today's game at Nationals Park (Byron Kerr is your man on the scene for the series finale against the Phillies), I figure we'd bump up this week's Q&A by a day. The week started off with one of the craziest victories in Nationals history: their dramatic, 16-inning win over the Twins to sweep that series. Since then, they've dropped two straight to Philadelphia and now have to win this afternoon...

TAMPA - The Orioles begin a 10-game, 11-day homestand tonight with rain naturally in the forecast. Same with much of the weekend. It's become more of a Maryland tradition than crab cakes, Old Bay and snow panic. There will be windows, of course, and the forecast can change hourly. The Orioles already have to make up two games that were postponed and aren't looking to bump up the total. The White Sox are the first opponent on the homestand, and they're back here for the one-year anniversary...

It's easy to start worrying about a lineup's overall deficiencies on a night like this, when a journeyman pitcher holds it to two hits (one of them a bunt single) and doesn't let a man so much as reach scoring position after the second inning. But the Nationals' 3-0 loss to the Phillies wasn't entirely an aberration. There have been issues with this lineup almost since opening day, some of them becoming more pronounced in recent days. Aside from Bryce Harper, Daniel Murphy and Wilson Ramos...

The Phillies shut out the Nationals 3-0, but left-hander Gio Gonzalez continues to pitch well. Gonzalez allowed just one earned run in 6 1/3 innings. He allowed a sacrifice fly in the sixth, a throwing error scored a run in the seventh and the lefty left with the bases loaded after a walk later in the inning. "Tough situation, I made some pitches that I wish I could take back a little bit," Gonzalez said. "They did a great job. I also got to give them credit. They were swinging at...