The Washington Nationals returned from rehab and reinstated right-handed pitcher Doug Fister on Thursday, and optioned right-handed pitcher Taylor Hill to Triple-A Syracuse. President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement. Fister, who will start Thursday night vs. Tampa Bay at Nationals Park, rejoins the Nationals after missing 29 games with right forearm tightness. The 31-year-old was 0-1 with a 0.93 ERA (1 ER/9.2 IP), no walks and 10 strikeouts in two...

The Orioles came up one run short in their attempt to take four in a row from the Philadelphia Phillies. Ryan Howard's two-run homer off Bud Norris in the last of the sixth gave the Phillies their first lead of the four games and they made it stand up for a 2-1 win. The O's had taken the first three games by a combined 29-7 score. Philadelphia (23-45) snapped a nine-game losing streak. Today's game started well for the Orioles when Manny Machado hit a leadoff homer on the fifth pitch from...

PHILADELPHIA - It didn't take long for the Orioles to take another lead against the Phillies. Manny Machado launched Sean O'Sullivan's fifth pitch of today's game over the right field wall for his third leadoff home run of the season. The Orioles have hit four leadoff home runs this season, including Alejandro De Aza's shot against the Blue Jays on April 11. In case you're wondering, Brady Anderson hit 12 leadoff homers in 1996. Machado has some serious chasing to do, but he's got...

So Chris Parmelee's first two games with the Orioles have gone pretty well. He is 5-for-9 with five runs, three homers and three RBIs. That works out to a slugging percentage of 1.556 and an OPS of 2.156. Parmelee has homered in consecutive games for the fourth time in his career and and for the first time since June 1-3, 2013. Parmelee became the seventh player to homer in consecutive games to begin his career with the Orioles and first since Nelson Cruz, March 31-April 2, 2014. Last night on...

PHILADELPHIA - There's no Adam Jones in the Orioles lineup for today's finale of a two-game interleague series against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. Jones will miss his third straight game while he rests a sore right shoulder, among other nagging ailments. The Orioles will go with Travis Snider in left field, David Lough in center and Chris Parmelee in right. If they can beat the Phillies today, the Orioles will move a season-high four games above .500. They have the same 34-31 record...

The Nationals had quite a show at Double-A Harrisburg yesterday as Stephen Strasburg took the mound with widely hyped prospect Trea Turner behind him at shortstop. Turner was playing in just his second game with the Senators after finally arriving following a six-month wait after he was dealt to the Nationals as a player to be named. San Diego selected Turner 12th overall out of N.C. State in the 2014 First-Year Player Draft. He immediately began producing and was quickly elevated to Single-A...

Coming into Wednesday night's game, the Nationals sat second in the National League in runs scored per game and eighth in runs allowed. Ask most people before the season started and they'd likely have told you that those rankings would be reversed. Turn on the radio or browse social media today after the Nationals got shut out and all the talk will be about how putrid their offense is. In past seasons, when I'd inform people the Nationals offense was better than they think, it was right...

We often underestimate the importance of the leadoff hitter. He's the guy that gets things started, sets the table for the rest of the order and ends up with the most plate appearances at the end of the season. A struggling hitter atop a lineup can doom an inning or, at the very least, limit the damage against an opposing pitcher. One of my biggest concerns when the Orioles lost Nick Markakis to free agency was how they would be able to replace his production at the top of the lineup. Markakis...

Right-hander Doug Fister returns to the starting rotation tonight as the Nationals wrap up their home-and-home interleague series with the Tampa Bay Rays. Fister, who will be activated from the disabled list after missing time with a strained right flexor forearm muscle, was impressive in his rehab assignment with the Double-A Harrisburg Senators last Friday night. He struck out four and allowed only two hits over six shutout innings in the 4-2 win over Trenton. In seven major league starts...

There are six 2015 Orioles draft picks currently on the short-season Single-A Aberdeen IronBirds roster as the team preps for its season opener on Friday night at Ripken Stadium. But the IronBirds roster will be changing and evolving a lot early in the season. Yesterday, the Orioles announced the signings of 14 players from the draft and they have officially signed 17 picks overall with many more to follow and probably follow very soon. The players signed yesterday included (with their draft...