Delmon Young said it is not hard to explain why the Orioles have hit nine homers in the series against St. Louis. "We're not missing pitches out over the plate that we were missing before," he said simply. Young went 2-for-4 with a double, homer and three RBIs on Saturday. He's now batting .321 with five homers and 19 RBIs in 156 at-bats. Young, who is 9-for-17 as a pinch-hitter, has a .474 slugging percentage and .828 OPS. He is batting .368 since the All-Star break. He has shown an...

Orioles manager Buck Showalter is sticking with the hot hand today. Or bat, in this case. Delmon Young remains in the lineup, starting in left field against Cardinals right-hander Lance Lynn. Nelson Cruz is serving as the designated hitter. Caleb Joseph will attempt to tie the Orioles' record for consecutive games with a home run. Joseph has homered in five straight. Miguel Gonzalez stopped by the clubhouse this morning. He's going to join Triple-A Norfolk on Monday and pitch the following...

It has been quite the ascension for Nationals outfield prospect Michael Taylor. Reports have Taylor in Atlanta ready for possible activation to the big league club if outfielder Steven Souza Jr. has to be placed on the disabled list due to injury. Back in January, Taylor was honored as the 2013 Potomac Nationals Player of the Year. He was placed on the 40-man roster around the same time. The previous season started with then-Potomac hitting coach Mark Harris working on adjusting Taylor's...

ATLANTA - On Friday night, the Nationals sat through a rain delay and battled nearly all the way back from a seven-run deficit, but still dropped a game to Atlanta. Despite the loss, the comeback was significant, players said prior to yesterday's contest. And they meant it. But moral victories only go so far. And so when the Nats headed to extra innings with the Braves last night, another close loss wasn't going to boost clubhouse morale. There would be no more productive defeats. Another...

ATLANTA - Are the Nationals and Braves capable of playing a normal, uneventful 5-2 ballgame? How about a quiet 3-1 contest? No? OK, then. The Nats and Braves waited out nearly a four-hour rain delay tonight and then battled for 11 innings before Washington was able to take a 4-1 win. Wilson Ramos' RBI single to center broke the 1-1 tie, and Kevin Frandsen then drove in two more with a double to right to break the game open in extras. Here's manager Matt Williams after the...

If I have to provide a list of my biggest Orioles surprises in 2014, it would include Delmon Young hitting .354 in 96 at-bats against right-handers. Did you really see it coming? Be honest. Young is a career .301 hitter against left-handers and a .276 hitter vs. right-handers, including his production this season. If he had any shot at contributing in 2014 after signing a minor league deal in January, it figured to be in a platoon role against southpaws or coming off the bench against them....

The Nationals and Braves had to wait three hours and 47 minutes to play baseball tonight; in return, we've seen a pretty decent pitching matchup between Tanner Roark and Aaron Harang. Neither pitcher has allowed a run through three innings of work. Roark has allowed three hits, walked one and struck out two, while Harang has allowed two hits, walked one and struck out one. It appears the rain delay did not bother either pitcher. Update: Denard Span extended his on-base streak to 35...

Will the real Orioles offense stand up? Is it the group that scored just three runs on six hits in the last two games of the Toronto series? Or is it the group that scored 22 runs on 31 hits with nine homers the last two games against St. Louis? Chris Tillman and Ubaldo Jimenez probably don't want to analyze it. They are happy to get that run support, and the Orioles look for the sweep this afternoon at Camden Yards. After scoring nine or more runs in just five of their first 111 games, the...

The Orioles have scored 10 or more runs in back-to-back games for the second time this season. They also did it on April 23-24 in Toronto. The club record is three straight games on May 24-27, 2003. We're just scratching the surface here. The Orioles hold a six-game lead in the American League East for the first time since Sept. 15, 1997. They're a season-high 18 games above .500. Is this team sensing that a playoff berth is nearing? Can it smell the finish line? "No," said manager...

Caleb Joseph today became the 15th catcher since 1914 to homer in five consecutive games. For a player that not long ago had a hard time getting out of Double-A, he's been on quite a run. And he showed some emotion today with a fist pump when he hit that one. "It's just a big whirlwind of kind of emotions," he said. "You set a record and maybe seven or eight months ago, I was thinking about hanging it up. "Every day in the big leagues is such a blessing, and especially to be on this...