At the end of each baseball season, 29 teams go home without a ring. Unfortunately for baseball fans in Washington, the Nationals are one of those teams that went home without the ring in 2014. The team's playoff run lasted four games against the San Francisco Giants after Tuesday night's elimination match-up in which the Nats fell two games to one against their NLDS competitor. From what I could gather from casual fans I follow on Facebook and Twitter, the majority were discontent regarding...

Suddenly, the Nationals season is over. The season began on March 31 and ended on Oct. 7. The team that won 96 games, had the best record in the National League, is out of the postseason after a mere four games. The Nationals have won 280 games over the past three seasons, won a pair of division titles, but have yet to advance to the League Championship Series. What happened? Really, how did this happen so fast? The pitching was good. Allowing the Giants to score nine runs in four games....

SAN FRANCISCO - They sure made things interesting. From earning the best record in the National League to Jordan Zimmermann's no-hitter on the last day of the regular season, the Nationals became, to many, the team to watch in the postseason. Who could beat their pitching staff, a rotation in which the postseason's odd man out pitched to a 2.85 ERA during the regular season? Beyond their rotation, the Nats bullpen shut down teams and Drew Storen had emerged as a lights-out closer. However, in...

The 96 victories the Nationals amassed this year, the 17-game bulge over the Braves in the National League East, all the hopes and dreams of a deeper run than in the 2012 postseason - all evaporated Tuesday night in a 3-2 loss to San Francisco in Game 4 of the National League Division Series. The Giants advance to face the Cardinals in the National League Championship Series. The Nationals go home. The emotional swing in the decisive seventh inning was gut-wrenching. Any momentum the Nationals...

The Orioles are having another workout at Camden Yards today that's closed to the public. Reporters will be allowed inside on Thursday. Wanna have some fun? Ask a bartender to put the National League Division Series game on one of the televisions. Then watch him or her react as though you wanted a kidney. It's on FOX Sports 1, which was my 13th guess. Right after VH1 and ION E. I almost ordered one of the porn channels by mistake. Yes, by mistake. Come on, Major League Baseball, stop...

SAN FRANCISCO - Seven Giants hitters came to the plate in the bottom of the second inning. Only one hit the ball out of the infield. And San Francisco has a 2-0 lead. Gio Gonzalez could have had an inning-ending double play on Juan Perez's tapper back to the mound with one on and one out, but he couldn't handle the slow roller which had loads of spin on it, and it went for an error. Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong then dropped down a nice bunt which neither Gonzalez nor Anthony Rendon made a...

The Kansas City Royals held Major League Baseball's highest scoring team to six runs and a .170 batting average and swept the Angels in the American League Division Series. The Orioles held baseball's second highest scoring team to 10 runs and a .218 average in a sweep of Detroit. Now the Orioles host the Royals in the American League Championship Series as these clubs meet for the first time in the postseason. It's been a combined 60 years since the Orioles (1983) and Royals (1985) each...

SAN FRANCISCO - Giants manager Bruce Bochy said today that all his pitchers are available for tonight's Game 4 of the National League Division Series - even Jake Peavy, who would otherwise be tabbed as San Francisco's Game 5 starter. Nationals skipper Matt Williams will go with the same everyone-is-available approach. Williams said this afternoon that he is not ready to announce his Game 5 starter, saying, "We have a couple guys that would be certainly ready for Game 5. But we don't know...

SAN FRANCISCO - Hear Bryce Harper's name and you probably think of a guy who's been around the league for a while. He's been talked about by national writers for several years and compared to many past and present greats. Heck, he's even been edited into a commercial with footage of Ted Williams and Babe Ruth. However, what some may forget is that Harper is still young. Despite spending almost three full seasons in the majors, Harper is still nine days shy of 22. Not too shabby for...

If someone told me six months ago that the two teams competing for the American League championship would be the Orioles and Royals, I'd probably have told them they were dreaming. Back in March, I would have argued that while each team was capable of competing with the best, a lot of things would need to fall into line for the two to outlast powerful American League rivals such the Tigers, Athletics, Angels and the defending world champion Red Sox. Just as the Orioles did to the Tigers, the...