Outfielder Frank Robinson started his career in 1956 and played his final game in 1976. In between, he put up Hall of Fame numbers. Robinson finished with 586 home runs, 2,948 hits and 1,812 RBIs. As an Oriole in 1966, he hit .316 with 42 homers and 122 RBIs to win the American League Triple Crown. He won National League Rookie of the Year and an MVP award in each league. He helped the Orioles to two World Series titles in 1966 against the Los Angeles Dodgers and in 1970 against Cincinnati....

Gio Gonzalez will be looking to get back on track as he heads to the hill tonight for the Nationals. The Nats left-hander has been in a bit of a funk lately, losing his last five decisions to fall to 6-9 on the season. Gonzalez's last three starts have been especially rough, as he as surrendered 11 runs and 20 hits while walking seven in just 14 1/3 innings. He has a 6.91 ERA over those three outings to lift his season mark to 4.00. Gonzalez has failed to make it through five innings three...

Orioles manager Buck Showalter has placed David Lough in the second slot in the lineup for tonight's game against the Indians at Progressive Field. Lough is making his fourth start this season as the No. 2 hitter. Chris Davis, who went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts last night, was lowered from second to fifth. The Orioles need to win the next two games to extend their series win streak to nine, tying the club record. They also won nine straight from July 31 to Aug. 27, 1968 and Sept. 18,...

There was a stretch earlier this season where Rafael Soriano wasn't just notching saves and recording scoreless innings. He was nearly untouchable. From June 15 through July 12, Soriano made 12 appearances. He didn't allow a single run in that span, surrendered just four hits and two walks and struck out 13. Opposing hitters had just a .103 batting average against Soriano in that 12-game run, with a .249 OPS. Even earlier this month, from August 1-9, Soriano had a mini dominant stretch,...

I'm going to start this blog entry by saying that Orioles manager Buck Showalter is aware of left-hander Brian Matusz's splits. I feel the need to point this out to anyone questioning why Showalter allowed Matusz to face Mike Aviles last night. It's the bottom of the 11th. Showalter would rather not play match-ups and risk running out of relievers. And while right-handers were batting .306 against Matusz this season, he wasn't charged with a run in July while holding opponents to a .133...

This is how good a season the Orioles are having. On a night when they left 10 runners on base, scored just one run and lost in walk-off fashion, there was little gloom and doom to be found on this blog last night. Kind of refreshing, isn't it? No one second-guessing Buck Showalter's every move or ripping everyone but the bat boy. No proclaiming this is nothing more than a .500 team. That one was big nightly for a long, long, long time during the 2014 season. No proclaiming the sky is...

Tanner Roark got another early lead - the Nationals have scored 29 runs in the first inning in his starts, so it's becoming routine - but the right-hander couldn't gut his way through the sixth inning. He said he wasn't finishing pitches, was trying to be too perfect. And he paid the price. One bad inning made a 5-0 game much closer and substantially upped his pitch count. "I felt good, just trying to be too fine with my slider and my curveball today. ... Fastball was good, thought I had...

A 5-0 Nationals lead after three was trimmed to 5-3 in the fourth when the Pirates got to Tanner Roark. They then got to Rafael Soriano in the ninth, and nearly completed a big road comeback. Instead, Soriano walked the tightrope yet again and notched the save, his 29th of the season, giving the Nats a 5-4 win and their fourth straight victory. Adam LaRoche and Bryce Harper each drove in two for the Nats, and Denard Span had three hits and two stolen bases. Soriano allowed three hits and a run...

For the Orioles, it was a tough start to a nine-game road trip. Mike Aviles led off the last of the 11th with a homer to left off Brian Matusz as Cleveland beat the Orioles 2-1 with the walk-off win. Aviles hit a 77 mph breaking ball for his fourth homer. The Orioles fall to 69-51 and their eight-game winning streak in series openers comes to an end. The Orioles tied the game 1-1 in the top of the eighth with a two-out rally. With none on, Nelson Cruz singled to end Corey Kluber's night....

How's this for a statistic: The Nationals have scored 29 first-inning runs when Tanner Roark is on the mound. Adam LaRoche got the party started tonight, his RBI single scoring Asdrubal Cabrera to stake the Nats to a 1-0 lead. Denard Span led off the frame with a single, Cabrera walked and Span was thrown out trying to steal third before Anthony Rendon's single to right put runners at first and second. LaRoche followed with a single to center off Pirates righty Charlie Morton. Ian Desmond...