Home, sweet home. Finally. That 10-day road trip felt quite a bit longer, with long flights, three stops and lots of momentum swings for the Nationals along the way. The Nats went into this trip hoping to go on a bit of a run, get hot and carry some momentum back home into a big week, which features a four-game series against the Braves. They accomplished part of that goal, starting the road trip by winning back-to-back series against the Padres and Giants, giving them four straight series...

Depth at any position in any sport is always crucial, but it seems starting pitching in baseball always provides one of the toughest tests for a team in this department. It's clear that having a top-notch pitcher always gives an organization a chance to win every fifth day, but one injury (or sore elbow leading to Tommy John surgery, it seems this season), can derail the best of rotations and teams. The Orioles are clearly going about things differently this season, and have been for some...

There are those among you that insist the Orioles are nothing more than a .500 team that will fall short of a playoff berth this season. The last 10 games gave that opinion more credibility. While the clubhouse take seemed to be that the club is fine and they'll be more chances to face Toronto later in the year, this was the chance for the Orioles to trim their first-place deficit to 2 1/2 games against a Toronto team that was not playing as well as it once was. The Birds faced J.A. Happ who...

The Single-A Hagerstown Suns came back to defeat Greenville 8-5 to finish the first half of the season with 44 wins. But because Greensboro won earlier in the day, the Suns did not win the first half of their Northern division in the South Atlantic League. Despite a big lead out of the gates, the Suns lost seven of their final 10 games of the first half to come up a little bit short. But Hagerstown demonstrated how they can win games with a comeback in the sixth inning. Trailing 3-1, Isaac...

The Orioles are in St. Petersburg, Fla. today, and I'll be joining them later if my 6:15 a.m. flight arrives safely. Matt Wieters is in Gulf Breeze, Fla., undergoing a second elbow exam by renowned and feared orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews. Feared by clubs who send their players to him and brace for the worst possible outcome. How often is the news good? Wieters was told he didn't need surgery during his first visit. That's one. No one in the organization will be shocked if...

Less than a year since he underwent Tommy John surgery, right-hander Dylan Bundy returned to a pro mound tonight as he gave up one run over five innings for short-season Single-A Aberdeen at Hudson Valley. Bundy gave up five hits and threw 65 pitches in his outing for the IronBirds. He walked none and struck out six. He left with Aberdeen trailing 1-0. Bundy's fastball was sitting in the 91 to 93 mph range. Bundy threw 10 pitches in a 1-2-3 first, getting three groundball outs. He gave up a...

So much for momentum. The Nationals finished off a 5-5 road trip this afternoon with a 5-2 loss to the Cardinals, who have taken 12 of the last 14 regular season games between the teams. It's Washington's fourth straight loss after starting the trek 5-2 through San Diego and San Francisco. Doug Fister saw a streak of five straight wins halted, Ryan Zimmerman made a couple of nice plays in his first career game at first base and the Nats had a chance to do some damage in the ninth inning, but...

Adam Jones would not characterize it as frustrating, but the Orioles left their series with Toronto right where they started it. They split the four games and are 4 1/2 games back of the first-place Blue Jays. "Not frustrating," Jones said. "They're a good team, man. We could have got swept. We could have swept them. Look at the bright side, we got two out of four. Now let's go on the road and start the series off right tomorrow in Tampa. "It's not a missed opportunity. Because we are...

The Orioles finally get a decent stretch of games at home and they go 5-5 before heading back on the road. They're also .500 against the Blue Jays after today's 5-2 loss before a sellout crowd at Camden Yards. "They're a really good team and there's no secret why they're there," said manager Buck Showalter. "They're very athletically talented and their pitching has really been solid. We knew that. I think the team everybody thought they might be last year, they are this year....

The Orioles are still trying to put it all together and match up strong starting pitching with solid hitting. Today was another day with half the equation. While Chris Tillman produced the rotation's seventh straight quality start, the bats were mostly quiet in a 5-2 loss to Toronto in front of 46,469, the fifth sellout of 2014. The Orioles split this four-game series with first-place Toronto and leave it right where they started at 4 1/2 games out. Blue Jays starter J.A. Happ, who had an...