Adam Jones has dropped to fifth among American League outfielders in the latest All-Star balloting. No Oriole is ranked higher than fifth, the slots also occupied by third baseman Manny Machado and catcher Caleb Joseph. Jones was fourth in the two previous weeks, but his 1,995,897 votes now trail Kansas City's Alex Rios (2,311,122) for fourth and Alex Gordon (3,393,134) for third. Another Royal, Lorenzo Cain, is first with 4,211,472 votes. Machado was fourth the past two weeks, but his 562,311...

So on the first day of the 2015 First-Year Player Draft, the Orioles will make three picks tonight, much different from last year when they didn't make a pick until the second day in the third round. Scouting director Gary Rajsich and his staff and scouts have been at the Warehouse at Camden Yards in meetings and final draft preparation for several days now. Tonight, the Orioles have the 25th, 36th and 68th overall picks, and all selections will be televised on MLB Network. Analysts have...

From the time they arrived from Montreal before the 2005 season, the Nationals have been a mainstay in the Washington, D.C., sports scene. But the Nats are also very active in the community, working diligently over the past decade to touch the lives of many in the region and proving that baseball has a further reach than wins and losses, balls and strikes, batters and pitchers. Each Thursday through mid-August, MASNsports.com's Byron Kerr will explore the Nationals' community outreach...

A day off on Monday has to be a welcome relief for a Nationals team that has dropped three straight series and eight of its last 10 games. After a torrid 18-9 May, the Nats could not help but come back down to Earth. In the major leagues, .667 baseball just isn't sustainable. The Nationals are also succumbing to another inevitability of the big league season: injuries. The eight position players who were projected as starters at the beginning of spring training have yet to play in the same...

Who are these Washington Nationals? Are they the team that baffled baseball coming out of the gates with a 7-13 mark in their first 20 games and have now stumbled to a 2-8 record in their last 10? What happened to those guys in May that won 18 of the 27 games? "I don't know, man," Denard Span said. "We've been streaky. Obviously this year, we're just going through a rough patch. Can't get anything going offensively. A lot of it's I think we're banged up as well. We've got a lot of...

The 2015 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft commences tonight and the Nationals won't make a big 1-1 splash like they have in the past with players like Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper. They won't even turn heads with a 1-6 pick like that of infielder Anthony Rendon. That's because the Nationals don't even pick in the first round this season. In the offseason, the Nationals surrendered that selection by signing former Cy Young winner Max Scherzer. That decision has already...

Much of the talk surrounding the Orioles in recent weeks has been focused on the July 31 trade deadline and whether or not the team will be sellers going forward. Despite having taken two out of three over the Indians this weekend, the O's have struggled to gain traction this season and still sit last in the weak American League East. That said, we all know how the weak division has allowed the Orioles to remain just 5 1/2 games out of first place despite sitting in the cellar. I'm not...

After winning a franchise best nine consecutive series, the Nationals dropped their third straight after falling 6-3 to the Cubs in the finale of this weekend's four game set. "Am I concerned? No, I'm not concerned," Nationals manager Matt Williams said. "What we need to do is play every day. It's the same team that was really good in May. It's been a little rough for us recently, but there's no reason that we can't pull out of that, too. It's the same team that was rough in April....

Nationals center fielder Denard Span had to leave Sunday's 6-3 loss to the Cubs after the seventh inning with back spasms. Danny Espinosa replaced Span in the game and played left field. Michael A. Taylor switched over to center field. Span said the back spasms came upon him quickly and jolted him in the dugout after his at bat in the bottom of the seventh. "I felt fine. I popped up to shortstop," Span said. "Came back, put my helmet in the rack, put my bat down, calmly. Sat down on the...

Winning three of their last four games doesn't make the Orioles wish they could skip today's off-day. It's not even close. They're embracing it the way Sidney Ponson treats "National Doughnut Day." The Orioles hadn't found an open date on their schedule since May 18, giving them 22 games over the past 21 days, including the makeup doubleheader on May 28 against the White Sox. A reminder that left-hander Brian Matusz is serving an eight-game suspension, not an eight-day suspension. He's...