The Nationals got on the board in the third inning against Padres lefty Eric Stults. Pitcher Jordan Zimmermann got it started with a single past diving shortstop Everth Cabrera and into left field. Denard Span reached on a fielder's choice, erasing Zimmermann at second. Span then stole second and Stults' pickoff throw sailed past the first baseman, allowing Span to go to third. He scored on a towering fly ball to left field off the bat of Anthony Rendon and the Nationals led 1-0. Zimmermann...

Part of David Lough's appeal to the Orioles is his ability to run down fly balls or hits in the gap and to make strong and accurate throws. Lough put his defensive skills on display in the bottom of the first inning tonight at Rogers Centre on Edwin Encarnacion's two-out double. Lough fired the ball to shortstop J.J. Hardy, who cut down Melky Cabrera at the plate for the Orioles' eighth outfield assist. The Orioles and Angels were tied for the major league lead with seven outfield assists...

Nationals catcher Jose Lobaton began Wednesday's ninth-inning rally against the Angels with his first home run of the season, a no-doubter down the right field line and into the Nationals bullpen, cutting the Angels lead to 4-2. The Nationals were able to score three more runs and come back to win 5-4. Lobaton connected on a 0-2 count after starting the night 0-for-3 at the plate. He said more time with Nationals hitting coach Rick Schu helped him to make an important adjustment in his...

Nationals manager Matt Williams updated the recovery of starting right-hander Doug Fister, who is on the 15-day disabled list with a right lat strain. Williams said Fister threw 40 pitches in a bullpen session Thursday and "felt good." This means that Fister is on track to make a rehab start Sunday for high Single-A Potomac on Sunday in Woodbridge, Va. The plan is for Fister to go four innings with a 60-pitch limit. Fister would then have one more rehab start and go five innings. All of these...

The Orioles look to get back over .500 and complete a winning road trip if they get a win tonight at Toronto. They are also looking for their third series win of the season. But once again, fans will be closely watching an O's starting pitcher. The Orioles are still in need of starters getting deeper into games. Six times over the last seven games, the O's starting pitcher has worked fewer than six innings and that has happened 13 times on the season. O's starters have no quality starts...

Nelson Cruz has registered at least one RBI in six consecutive games. The last Oriole to record an RBI in seven straight games was Mark Reynolds from Sept. 15-22, 2012. Can Cruz tie Reynolds tonight? Cruz has 20 RBIs in April for the first time in his career. Miguel Tejada holds the club record for RBIs this month with 31 in 2005. Chris Davis has hit 18 homers and Adam Jones 14 against the Blue Jays since the start of the 2012 season. No other major leaguer has accumulated as many as 10 against...

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...