On the heels of last night's 11-4 drubbing by the Diamondbacks, the Nationals find themselves two games behind the Mets for the lead in the Naional League East. Oh, how the tables have turned in one week. Last Thursday at this time, the Nats led the division by two games, fresh off a two-homer, four RBI performance from slugger Bryce Harper in Miami the night before. Behind Max Scherzer, the Nats went on to shut out the Marlins that afternoon to increase their lead to three games heading to...

In the first inning of the first game of this important road trip, Chris Davis hit a three-run homer to get the Orioles started on a win. In the last inning yesterday, he hit a grand slam to provide another win. Davis leads the major leagues in strikeouts. Think anyone is still harping on that at this point? His bat is red-hot and the run production, which some of us said was there early in the year when he was striking out often, is even more apparent now. Over his last 15 games, Davis is...

For the third straight start, Gio Gonzalez was unable to pitch out of the sixth inning. Manager Matt Williams yanked Gonzalez after 95 pitches and turned to his bullpen, which promptly allowed four quick runs to change the complexion of the game in the Nationals' 11-4 loss to the Diamondbacks. The decision surrounding Gonzalez's removal seemed strange. The left-hander yielded seven hits with one walk and seven strikeouts when he finished the fifth at 93 pitches. With the Nationals leading 2-1...

There was nothing comfortable about the Nationals' 11-4 loss to the Diamondbacks. The game lasted four minutes shy of four hours. Arizona left fielder Ender Inciarte and center fielder A.J. Pollock were each credited with six at-bats. The Diamondbacks pounded out 17 hits, which tied the season high of hits allowed by the Nationals (also April 28 at Atlanta.) The Nationals had to go to their bullpen in the sixth inning. Four relievers could not slow down Arizona over those final 11 outs. The...

The Orioles have again climbed within 5 1/2 games of first place in the American League East. All it took was a dramatic 10-inning victory in Oakland and a Yankees loss to a Red Sox team that hadn't won on the road since July 2. Assuming that his left ankle is fine, do you start Chris Tillman on Sunday in Anaheim or Monday in Seattle? Tillman is 6-0 with a 2.09 ERA lifetime against the Mariners, and he's allowed one run and five hits in 14 1/3 innings in two starts at Safeco Field, with two...

As the Orioles entered the 2015 season, one of the major questions they faced centered around Chris Davis. Following his MVP-caliber 2013 season, in which he led baseball with 53 homers and 138 RBIs, Davis hit just 26 homers and drove in 72 in 2014. He played in 127 games while dealing with an oblique injury and finished the season with a 25-game suspension for a positive Adderall test. The offseason brought a number of questions as free agency loomed. Who is the real Chris Davis? Was he the...

Led by Yunel Escobar, the Nationals came out swinging the bats aggressively for the second straight night. Escobar drilled Rubby De La Rosa's first-pitch heater over center fielder A.J. Pollock to start the game with a double. Anthony Rendon and Bryce Harper drew consecutive walks to load the bases for Ryan Zimmerman with no outs. Zimmerman lifted a fly ball to right that was deep enough to score the tagging Escobar for the game's first run. Rendon was next to score on Jayson Werth's...

With one big swing, Chris Davis turned a tense extra-inning game into an Orioles victory. Tied 3-3 in the 10th, Davis hit a grand slam on a 3-2 pitch from Oakland right-hander Arnold Leon to provide the Orioles a 7-3 lead. They won by that margin to take two of three in the series at Oakland. In winning for the ninth time in the last 12 games, the Orioles improved to 55-52 for the season. They are 27-18 on the West Coast since 2012. The 10th began with a Caleb Joseph single off Leon. He went to...

Welcome to the Nats game blog! The Nationals look for two wins in a row as left-hander Gio Gonzalez (8-4, 3.75 ERA) takes on Arizona right-hander Rubby De La Rosa (8-5, 4.59). Gonzalez has not lost a game since June 15 at Tampa Bay and has not surrendered more than two earned runs in six consecutive starts. Danny Espinosa gets the call to start at shortstop as Ian Desmond will get the day off. Jose Lobaton will catch for Gonzalez as he has all season. Gonzalez is 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA in four...

Ian Desmond's erratic season in the field and at the plate has led him to be the most criticized Washington Nationals player this season. So it's quite ironic that public sentiment is for Danny Espinosa, the most criticized Nat of the past few years, to replace Desmond in the lineup. Either way, Desmond sits tonight and Espinosa makes his fifth start of the season at shortstop. "It creates opportunity for me to give Desi a rest, which is important," Nationals manager Matt Williams said....