Enjoying a five-game lead atop the American League East for the first time since Sept. 20, 1997, the Orioles look to go a season-high 17 games over the .500 mark tonight at Toronto. The Orioles beat the second-place Blue Jays 9-3 last night and they now have a current winning record against every AL East team. The O's are 6-5 against Toronto, 7-6 versus Boston, 6-3 against New York and 8-4 against Tampa Bay. The Orioles are 16-7 in AL East road games and have lost just one of their last 11...

The Orioles have won three straight games in three different cities in three days for the first time since Sept. 7-9, 2011, according to the club's stellar and increasingly busy PR department. They defeated the Yankees 5-4 in New York, followed by a 5-4 walkoff win against the Yankees in Baltimore and a 2-0 victory over the Blue Jays in Toronto. The Orioles' winning pitchers in those three games? Pedro Strop, Clay Rapada and Jeremy Guthrie. Last night marked the first time that the...

Chris Davis moves back up to fifth in the Orioles lineup tonight after batting seventh and homering last night. David Lough is starting in left field, with Nelson Cruz serving as the designated hitter. Caleb Joseph has homered in three consecutive games, but he's on the bench. The Blue Jays have former Orioles Nolan Reimold and Danny Valencia in their lineup. Reimold is making his first start against the Orioles after collecting two plate appearances last night off the bench. For the...

The Nationals' newest reliever has arrived in D.C. and will be active for tonight's game against the Mets. Left-hander Matt Thornton, acquired yesterday in a waiver trade with the Yankees, has been added to the Nats' roster. Right-hander Blake Treinen was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse to open a roster spot for Thornton. This means the Nats will carry three left-handers in their bullpen for now. The 37-year-old Thornton joins fellow southpaws Ross Detwiler and Jerry Blevins. Thornton...

The Washington Nationals today activated left-handed reliever Matt Thornton and optioned right-handed pitcher Blake Treinen to Syracuse of the Triple-A International League. Nationals President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement. Thornton, who was acquired on a waiver claim from the New York Yankees on Tuesday, joins the Nationals after going 0-3 with 12 holds and a 2.55 ERA (7 ER/24.2 IP) in 46 appearances in his lone season with the Yankees. In his...

Wei-Yin Chen has never pitched in Toronto. Orioles manager Buck Showalter should try to convince him that the club returned to Seattle for a one-game series. Four cities in four days. It could happen. Chen is coming off two outstanding starts against the Mariners, allowing one run over 15 1/3 innings with two walks and 11 strikeouts. Criticized in the past for not getting deep into games, he's worked into the eighth inning in back-to-back outings. Chen's 12 victories this season tie him...

The Braves keep on losing. Another loss last night, to Felix Hernandez and the Mariners, marked Atlanta's seventh straight defeat and their 12th in their last 16 games. Fredi Gonzalez's team is giving the Nationals a major window here, a big-time chance to open up their National League East lead. And to this point, the Nats have been unable to truly capitalize on it. Yeah, the Nats have a three-game lead in the division, which isn't anything to scoff at. It's the widest margin between...

So I have a pet peeve that I've stayed quiet about for too long now. It's gotten to the point where I nearly boiled over with irritation while discussing said pet peeve with my friend last night. What is it? Well, clearly it's baseball related, since it's being posted on this blog. Even now, in its seventh year of operation, there are people who live in the D.C. metropolitan area and suburbs who call Nationals Park anything except its namesake and it's driving me crazy. I've heard a...

As the first week of August nears its end, the Orioles have found themselves in a position that hasn't been seen all that often since returning to their winning ways in 2012. During the successful seasons of 2012 and 2013, the O's offense was rarely the No. 1 cause for concern, as that worry typically focused on inconsistent starting pitching. Powerful lineups in each of those two seasons - led by the likes of Adam Jones, Chris Davis, Matt Wieters, Manny Machado and J.J. Hardy - ensured O's...

That escalated quickly. I'm talking about the Orioles' offense. Now the runs are coming in bunches. They were coming in a slow trickle. Through the first 16 games out of the All-Star break, the Orioles were batting just .202 and scoring 3.3 runs per game. Going into Monday's game at Washington, they had scored 10 runs in five games. Now, they have 16 in their last two games. In the Seattle series, the Orioles scored six runs on 21 hits in three games. Over the last two nights, they scored...