The Nationals will trot a hot pitcher out to the mound for the opener of their four-game series against the Braves. Right-hander Jordan Zimmermann, who will oppose Braves righty and Annapolis native Gavin Floyd, has allowed only one run in his past 26 innings. On the year, Zimmermann is 5-3 with a 2.98 ERA. Here's the Nationals lineup: CF Denard Span 3B Anthony Rendon RF Jayson Werth 1B Adam LaRoche LF Ryan Zimmerman SS Ian Desmond 2B Danny Espinosa C Jose Lobaton RHP Jordan Zimmermann

The Orioles are sending Ubaldo Jimenez to the mound Friday night at Yankee Stadium, and it's been a week since he's thrown a pitch. Jimenez is working on six days rest for the third time this season. Most recently, he tossed seven scoreless innings in Minnesota on May 2, striking out 10, to earn his first win as an Oriole. In his career, Jimenez is 11-10 with a 4.74 ERA in 27 starts with six days or more of rest. The extra rest this season has provided Jimenez with an extra bullpen session...

With the second half starting tonight in the Single-A Carolina League and Single-A South Atlantic League, the Orioles are using this time to move three players up from Delmarva to Frederick. First baseman Trey Mancini, outfielder Mike Yastrzemski and right-hander Jimmy Yacabonis are moving up and will join the Keys for tonight's game at Carolina. Mancini, an eighth-round pick last year out of Notre Dame, is batting .317 for the Shorebirds with 13 doubles, three triples, three homers and 42...

Having scored 289 runs on the season, the Nationals offense ranks eighth in the National League in runs scored. But over their last 20 games, the Nationals offense has kicked it into a different gear. For those games, they've scored 93 runs, or 4.65 runs a game, and have produced a 12-8 record. This scoring outburst also happens to include the series against the Cardinals in which they managed to score a grand total of three runs. The main complaint about the Nationals lately has been their...

Manager: Fredi Gonzalez, fourth year Record: 36-35 Last 10 games: 4-6 Who to watch: C Evan Gattis (.294/.346/.588, 16 HR, 38 RBIs); LF Justin Upton (.278/.351/.510, 14 HR, 13 doubles, 37 RBIs); RHP Julio Teheran (6-4, 2.31 ERA, 0.93 WHIP); RHP Gavin Floyd (1-2, 2.98 ERA) Season series vs. Nats: 5-1, 32 runs scored, 16 runs allowed Pitching probables June 19: Gavin Floyd vs. Jordan Zimmermann, 7 p.m., MASN HD June 20: Mike Minor vs. Stephen Strasburg, 7 p.m., MASN2 HD June 21: Julio Teheran vs....

Some thoughts and observations as we settle in for an O's off-day before their series this weekend at Yankee Stadium: Kevin Gausman's innings: Because the Orioles used Gausman out of the bullpen last season at the major league level, he ended the year with just 129 2/3 innings between the minors and majors. So that means he is probably slated to pitch around 175 innings this year. That is why the Orioles were limiting Gausman's innings so much early in the year at Triple-A when he went over...

If you happened to miss last night's Nationals win over the Astros, and didn't see right fielder Jayson Werth's tag-avoiding, pop-up-short-of-the-bag slide into second base, I highly suggest you check this out: Your browser does not support iframes. Werth said he knew he was going to be out as he went into his slide, so he switched into self-preservation mode. Somehow, it worked. "I think I've tried that a few different times, and I've never been successful at that," Werth said with a...

Coming into this two-game series with the Astros, the Nationals were 9-1 against Houston since the start of the 2012 season. We can make now that 11-1. The Nats swept this two-game set, tonight earning a 6-5 win in a bit of a back-and-forth ballgame. In Gio Gonzalez's first start back off the disabled list, the Nats took a 2-0 lead after three, but the Astros came back with four runs in the fourth off Gonzalez. The left-hander allowed those four runs over five innings, walking three, striking...

The Nationals' advance scouting saw that Astros starter Scott Feldman was slow to the plate. They felt they could run on Astros catcher Jason Castro. The strategy worked, playing a key part in the Nationals scoring two early runs. They lost that lead, but eventually ended up beating the Astros 6-5, going 5-for-5 in stolen bases, all off Feldman. But Denard Span said after the game that stealing five bases was not the crux of the overall game plan. "I don't think collectively as a team we...

Zach Britton entered Wednesday's game in the ninth inning, attempting to hold a 2-0 lead over the Rays and secure a series win for Orioles. Tampa Bay's 3-4-5 hitters (Evan Longoria, James Loney and Ben Zobrist) were due up. It's never easy in the American League East, even against the lowly Rays. In the blink of an eye, Joe Angel had pronounced that the Orioles were indeed in the win column after Britton struck out Longoria and Zobrist, and forced Loney to ground out to first base. Twelve...