Major League Baseball has announced the winners of the 2015 Honorary Bat Girl contest, which recognizes baseball fans who have been affected by breast cancer and who demonstrate a commitment to eradicating the disease. The Honorary Bat Girl for the Washington Nationals is Tracy Lustig of Alexandria, Va. She will be recognized on the field and will be responsible for delivering the lineup card before the team plays the Atlanta Braves on Sunday, May 10.Tracy Lustig is a resilient breast cancer...

Major League Baseball announced the 30 winners of the 2015 Honorary Bat Girl Contest that recognizes baseball fans who have been affected by breast cancer and demonstrate a commitment to eradicating the disease. The winner of the Honorary Bat Girl Contest for the Orioles is Sara Tresselt, who will be recognized in a pre-game ceremony at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Friday, May 15 prior to the Orioles game vs. the Los Angeles Angels. Tresselt will be honored during an on-field ceremony, will...

Thankfully, April is over. Now that it's May, the Nationals are winning. Winning is what Nats fans expected; it just has not been how we planned it. After a full month, the Nats sit just below .500 at 13-14. The Nats looked like they were going to end April on a losing streak. On April 27, they were on a six-game skid. However, to end the month, they turned up the gas and won three in a row against the Braves and Mets. Between Tuesday and Thursday, the bats heated up to produce 34 runs in...

No player has typified the first month for the Nationals better than shortstop Ian Desmond. From inexplicable fielding blunders to show-stopping defense, and from down-in-the-dumps batting slumps to curtain calls, Desmond has seen it all. The fielding demons came quick. Desmond's two errors in the season's first game bungled the script on opening day, costing the Nats a win. He had a staggering eight errors all together in the first 12 games, and they were expensive. In the seven games...

As the Orioles embark on a six-game road trip in New York that starts tonight with a two-game series against the Mets, they do so with a record of 12-11. How should we judge that? I think it is just fine when you consider a few things. For one, the Orioles have been playing without shortstop J.J. Hardy and catcher Matt Wieters all year. They've also sent Jonathan Schoop, Ryan Flaherty and Wesley Wright to the disabled list. Consider also the slow start of the pitching staff. Through the first...

Infielder Anthony Rendon's visit this afternoon with Nationals team doctor Wiemi Douoguih revealed a left oblique strain. "We're gonna have to slow his progress down a little bit," Nationals manager Matt Williams said after his team's 6-4 win over the Marlins. "He's felt it for the fast couple days, so we're going to have to sit him a little bit longer and make sure it's OK before he resumes activity. It's just not getting loose for him. So there's a little strain in there and we've...

With a desire to add more offense to his team that had failed in the postseason, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo pulled the trigger on a controversial trade to acquire infielder Yunel Escobar for reliever Tyler Clippard in mid-January. Wow, has it paid off. Escobar turned in a 5-for-5 night at the plate that included a clutch two-out two-RBI single in the eighth to break a tie and propel the Nats to a 6-4 win over the Marlins. Escobar, who is batting a team-high .311, never had five hits...

The Nationals once again got seven innings from their starter, but needed to rally in the eighth inning to come back and beat the Marlins 6-4. Jordan Zimmermann allowed a couple of hits in the first. Marcell Ozuna's RBI single game Miami the early 1-0 lead. But then Zimmermann did not give up another run until the seventh inning. Zimmermann knew after the first frame he would have to rely on other pitches to get guys out. "The first inning, I was right over the middle with the fastball and I...

Orioles pitching has been better lately, and Miguel Gonzalez's solid performance on Saturday (7 2/3 scoreless innings of four-hit ball with a walk and six strikeouts) played a part in the turnaround. It's been easy to routinely overlook Gonzalez, who always seems to be mentioned as a bullpen option instead of a lock for the rotation. I'm certainly guilty of that. But after five starts of posting a 2.59 ERA and a 3.89 FIP this season, Gonzalez is again chugging along and doing what it takes...

BOWIE, Md. - Both J.J. Hardy and Ryan Flaherty said they came through their rehab game tonight at Double-A Bowie just fine. They will both likely play here the next two days as they get closer to returning to the Orioles. Hardy, who has not played in a game since late in spring training, was asked if he could possibly be ready to return as soon as Thursday, after three games with the Baysox. "It is definitely possible, but I don't think anyone wants to get ahead of ourselves like that," he...