Manager: Ned Yost, fifth year Record: 10-11 Last 10 games: 6-4 Who to watch: 1B Eric Hosmer (.301/.348/.373, 6 doubles, 6 RBIs); LF Alex Gordon (.275/.314/.413, 9 XBH, 11 RBIs); RHP James Shields (2-2, 1.91 ERA, 35 K); RHP Yordano Ventura (1-1, 2.65 ERA, .190 BAA) Season series vs. O's (2013): 4-3, 28 runs scored, 26 runs allowed Pitching probables April 25: Yordano Ventura vs. Ubaldo Jimenez, 7 p.m., MASN HD April 26: Jeremy Guthrie vs. Wei-Yin Chen, 7 p.m., MASN HD April 27: James Shields...

The Nationals kick off a four-game set with the San Diego Padres tonight, a team that has a really solid pitching staff but also really struggles to score. San Diego has the fourth-best ERA in the majors at 2.82 and owns the majors' best bullpen (San Diego relievers have posted a stellar 1.74 ERA). The Padres have scored just 60 runs in 22 games, however, and come into the series having scored three runs or fewer in seven straight games. Jordan Zimmermann gets the ball for the Nats tonight,...

Single-A Delmarva Shorebirds outfielder Gregory Lorenzo reached base three times on Wednesday. Each time he was on, Lorenzo stole a base. He is 9-for-12 stealing on the year and his nine steals is tied for the South Atlantic League lead. Lorenzo is batting .250 over 17 games, but he is 6-for-13 over his last three games and is 5-for-5 stealing bases in that stretch. The 22-year-old from San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic, set a career-high stealing 40 bases (in 48 attempts) in...

Now that the smoke has cleared from last night's offensive eruption at Rogers Centre - better keep that roof open - we can get a clearer view of Matt Wieters' statistics. They're eye-opening, to say the least. Did anyone predict that Wieters would produce a slash line of .344/.382/.590 on April 24? Or that he'd have three doubles, four homers and 13 RBIs? If so, I'm just as impressed by your ability to look into the future and ignore the trends. Wieters owns a career .321 on-base...

What a weird game baseball can be. Tuesday night, the Nationals dropped their second straight ballgame to the Angels, this one by a 7-2 score. They were back to just one game over .500 through the season's first three weeks and were a win away from being swept. The defense wasn't pretty and hits with runners in scoring position had been largely absent on the homestand. Then, last night the Nats saw the Angels grab control of the game in the late innings. The Nats offense went quiet. Gio...

There are times that I forget that baseball is about the journey and not the destination, but I become so focused on the destination, the unknown future, that I get frustrated when it isn't reached. These Nationals are predicted to win a World Series at some point. The ultimate potential of players like Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg is too great for them not to be a winning team for the foreseeable future, or at least that is what the experts say. So far with those two players together,...

Wednesday night's dramatic 10-8 victory against Toronto may have taken a few years off the lives of Orioles fans, or at least caused some gray hairs, but it was a crucial comeback victory that guaranteed a winning record in one of the most grueling stretches of the O's schedule. This evening, the Birds conclude an extremely difficult 15-game span against American League East opponents. It began with a three-game series in New York against the Yankees way back on April 7, the Bronx Bombers'...

It was strange to watch last night's game without my laptop in front of me or in the trunk of my car. I kept an eye on one of the 5,000 or so televisions at Looney's Pub in Bel Air and saw the Orioles fall behind big and storm back for a 10-8 victory over the Blue Jays. It was nice to get confirmation that other teams can lose sizable leads. Does Nelson Cruz look like a bargain to the rest of you? Imagine how the lineup will look after Manny Machado comes off the disabled list. He's...

Did you catch that on MASN's "O's Xtra" postgame show last night, when Rick Dempsey said that maybe we should start referring to Tommy Hunter as Don Stanhouse? For the younger crowd, Stanhouse was the one-time Orioles closer who had a way of getting into big trouble on his way to a save. Earl Weaver called him "Full Pack," as in Weaver could smoke a full pack of cigarettes nervously waiting for the game to end. I could sense the nervousness throughout Birdland late last night when Toronto...

Two walk-off wins in four days. I bet Matt Williams would like the victories to come a little easier, but he'll take them any way he can get 'em. The Nationals rallied from a 4-1 ninth-inning deficit with four runs in the bottom half of the ninth, picking up a big comeback win and salvaging a game in this three-game set with the Angels. Jose Lobaton led off the ninth with a solo homer, Jayson Werth knotted the score with a two-run double on a 3-0 count and Adam LaRoche then won it with a...