Bud Norris faced 10 Blue Jays in the first two innings of today's game. He fell behind on a bases-loaded walk in the second after hitting the previous batter. A bad day? Not anymore. Norris is cruising at Camden Yards, having retired eight in a row and 14 of the last 16 batters while holding a 3-1 lead. He's back on the mound in the seventh with his pitch count at 96, having thrown only eight in the first and fifth. Norris has allowed one run over his last two starts totaling 14 innings...

The Orioles went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position last night. They were 10-for-48 (.208) in the first eight games of the homestand. One inning into today's game and they were already 0-for-3. Nick Markakis singled and Manny Machado doubled off Blue Jays knuckleballer R.A. Dickey. Second and third, no outs and the heart of the order coming up. The Orioles didn't show a pulse with RISP. Adam Jones flied to shallow center, Chris Davis lined to short and Nelson Cruz popped up. The...

The Nationals are 5-3 on their current road trip, and send right-hander Stephen Strasburg to the mound today in St. Louis to try and snap a two-game losing streak. Strasburg is 6-4 with a 2.99 ERA, but he has a string of 10 straight starts in which he's worked at least six innings. Six times in that span, he's pitched at least seven innings. His 108 strikeouts are second in the National League behind Reds pitcher Johnny Cueto, who has 109. Strasburg has won his last three starts and the...

Four of the last five Orioles games have ended with the losing team being shut out. The Orioles are 2-2 in those games. The Birds pitching staff is on a five-game roll: * The team ERA is 1.20 with 26 hits allowed over 45 innings. * The starters' ERA is 1.09 with five consecutive quality starts, a season-high. * The bullpen ERA is 1.50 with four hits allowed in 12 innings. Today, Bud Norris (5-5, 3.94 ERA) faces R.A. Dickey (6-4, 4.20 ERA) as we enjoy day baseball on a beautiful afternoon at...

Orioles manager Buck Showalter revealed his rotation for the series against the Rays that begins Monday at Tropicana Field, and it includes Miguel Gonzalez and Kevin Gausman. Wei-Yin Chen is set to pitch the opener, with Gonzalez and Gausman to follow. However, Gonzalez could be pushed back to Wednesday if he's needed in the bullpen Sunday against the Blue Jays. Today's game will dictate whether the Orioles need to activate Gonzalez from the disabled list on Sunday. Otherwise, they can...

Is Manny Machado's bat beginning to heat up? After a five-game stretch where he went 0-for-17, Machado is 4-for-7 with two doubles the last two games. He had three hits last night. He has been moved back to the second spot in the batting order for today's game. When asked if his bat is starting to get going after last night, Machado was honest to say he needs to see more evidence. "No, not yet. Not yet," he said. "Just because I got three hits doesn't mean anything. Just a good day....

After spending three days batting seventh, Manny Machado is back up to second in the Orioles lineup for this afternoon's game against the Blue Jays. The Orioles have Delmon Young at designated hitter, Nelson Cruz in left, Ryan Flaherty at second and Nick Hundley at catcher as they look to get the upper hand in their four-game series with the Blue Jays. Bud Norris is on the mound five days after pitching eight scoreless innings against the Red Sox, aiming to make it two strong starts in a...

Two losses in a row for the Nationals? Not concerned. This road trip has still been a rousing success. Travel from San Francisco to St. Louis and then back to the diamond did not result in a win thanks to the outstanding pitching of Lance Lynn. The Cardinals right-hander has given up an important postseason home run to the Nats in a relief role, but has done a great job against them as a starter. OK, I got that call a couple of weeks ago on Nats Insider (every Sunday 90 minutes prior to...

ST. LOUIS - Sixteen days ago, on May 29, Jordan Zimmermann woke up the owner of a 4.07 ERA. Not awful by any means, but not the type of number we expect to see next to Zimmermann's name on a stat sheet. He had just gotten a no-decision in a Nationals loss to the Marlins the previous night, allowing four runs (three earned) on eight hits over just five innings. It was his third start in six outings that went shorter than six innings. To that point, Zimmermann had a 1.46 WHIP, and had notched...

After Bud Norris pitched eight scoreless innings Monday night against Boston, a lot of the postgame talk was how effective the right-hander's changeup was that night. Norris gave up just three hits in that win. After he gave up a leadoff single to start the game, he retired the next 13 Red Sox hitters. He was rolling. Even though Norris estimates he threw just 12 or 15 changeups out of 98 pitches, the pitch gives him another weapon in his arsenal. "It is something I've always worked on,"...