Jason Pridie is in left field again tonight against a left-hander, Boston's Jon Lester, and Steve Pearce is serving as the Orioles designated hitter. Anyone seen Michael Morse? For the Orioles Brian Roberts 2B J.J. Hardy SS Chris Davis 1B Adam Jones CF Matt Wieters C Danny Valencia 3B Nick Markakis RF Steve Pearce DH Jason Pridie LF Wei-Yin Chen LHP For the Red Sox Shane Victorino CF Stephen Drew SS Dustin Pedroia 2B Mike Napoli DH Jonny Gomes LF Daniel Nava RF Brandon Snyder 1B David Ross...

PHOENIX - Just prior to his fifth-inning home run Friday night, Jayson Werth noticed that the bat that he was using had splintered. It was the same bat he'd used for weeks, a much longer life span than most bats Werth handles, and had delivered many big hits over what has been a personal hot stretch. Werth needed a new piece of lumber, so he called for the bat boy. "I think his name was Bobby," Werth said, dropping a "The Natural" reference on everyone. "He ran out the Savoy Special to...

PHOENIX - In some ways, tonight's start exemplified Stephen Strasburg's season. Strasburg had a couple of moments where he struggled to locate and had a shaky stretch in the third inning where he walked two batters and hit Diamondbacks starter Patrick Corbin with a 1-2 curveball. He had just four strikeouts in seven innings of work. But he finished the night going a solid seven innings, allowing just two runs in an 8-4 Nationals win. It wasn't the smoothest of starts for Strasburg, but it...

PHOENIX - Not only did tonight's 8-4 Nationals win finish off Stephen Strasburg's season on a high note and feature Jayson Werth's 25th homer of the year, it also brought Davey Johnson one win away from reaching a statistical milestone that somewhat strangely holds a decent amount of importance for him. With one more win this season, Johnson would be guaranteed to finish at least 300 games above .500 for his managerial career. If the Nats don't get the win tomorrow, Johnson will send...

Scott Feldman made his final start of the season last night, and it wasn't pretty. It also wasn't indicative of his time spent in an Orioles uniform. Feldman had allowed three earned runs or fewer in his last eight starts before the Red Sox shelled him. The Orioles won't judge him on it. The question is, will they re-sign him? Feldman will become a free agent following the season, and he's a favorite of manager Buck Showalter. The Orioles would like to retain him, but maybe not if...

Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette said Friday he plans to tender a 2014 contract to closer Jim Johnson, who has 99 saves over the last two seasons. He made the right move. Johnson is arbitration-eligible again and if the Orioles elected not to offer him arbitration - and "non-tender" him - he would become a free agent. At that point, any team could sign Johnson at any price and his critics should know that a lot of teams likely would have come calling. Maybe even a few in the...

PHOENIX - This will wrap up Stephen Strasburg's 2013 season. The right-hander went seven strong innings tonight, and leaves with the Nationals holding an 8-2 lead mid-way through the eighth thanks to Wilson Ramos' three-run shot. It was Ramos' 16th homer of the season, and it's turned this game into a blowout. Outside of a blip in the third inning in which he walked two, hit the pitcher and allowed two runs, Strasburg pitched pretty darn well tonight. He allowed just the two runs on six...

The Orioles held another Fireworks Night following their 12-3 loss to the Red Sox. Seemed kind of redundant. Scott Feldman turned in his shortest outing as an Oriole, allowing eight runs and eight hits in 2 1/3 innings. "He was up. Basically up," said manager Buck Showalter. "There's a fine line there. I thought he might find his step. He had a pretty clean second inning, but he couldn't get back in there in the third. He just elevated a lot of pitches. "It's unfortanate. You're...

Scott Feldman made a quick exit tonight, giving up eight runs and eight hits over just 2 1/3 innings as the Red Sox beat the Orioles 12-3. Feldman gave up five runs in the first, the most runs he has allowed in the opening inning in his 30 starts. "I just wasn't very good," Feldman said. "Seems like I made a lot of mistakes behind in the count and they hit them. Anytime I made a mistake, they pretty much put the good part of the bat on it. "Would have been nice to finish up stronger...

PHOENIX - Stephen Strasburg's third inning of work included two walks, including one to the Diamondbacks' number eight hitter, hitting the opposing pitcher on a 1-2 curveball when said opposing pitcher was squaring around to bunt, and two singles. Frankly, Strasburg was fortunate to come out of the inning having just allowed two runs. An RBI single by Gerardo Parra broke a scoreless tie and kept the bases loaded with none out, but Strasburg induced a big 5-4-3 double play, turned nicely by...