With the Nationals facing Phillies left-hander Cole Hamels tonight, Adam LaRoche will get the night off and Tyler Moore will start for the Nats at first base in the second game of this three-game set. LaRoche actually has pretty good numbers in his career against Hamels (.294 with four homers in 34 at-bats), but manager Davey Johnson will give the right-handed-hitting Moore the start at first in LaRoche's place tonight. Moore is 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and a walk against Hamels. Bryce...

The race for the two wild card playoff berths in the American League is, well, wild. Texas currently holds the first wild card spot, but now leads Tampa Bay by just one game, as the Rays hold the second wild card spot. Beyond that, four teams, including the Orioles, are within 3 1/2 games of Tampa, meaning those same four teams are now within 4 1/2 games of a Texas team that has lost nine of its last 11 games. The Rangers have a road trip upcoming next week to Tampa Bay and Kansas...

Danny Valencia remains in the Orioles' lineup today against the Blue Jays at Rogers Center. Brian Roberts is playing second base and batting ninth, one spot below Valencia. Chris Davis hit his 50th home run last night to tie Brady Anderson's single-season club record. Davis' 47 homers as a first baseman are the most in the AL since Jim Thome had 48 for Cleveland in 2002. Davis leads the majors with 90 extra-base hits, 20 more than Miguel Cabrera and two shy of Anderson's club record set...

The Nationals' postseason odds more than doubled with yesterday's results, jumping from 2.7 percent to 5.5 percent, according to both BaseballProspectus.com and CoolStandings.com. By no means is overcoming a 4 1/2-game deficit with 15 games remaining going to be easy. The Nats need to stay insanely hot and hope the Reds continue to flounder over the next two weeks. But 4 1/2 with 15 to go actually sounds somewhat attainable, or at least a heck of a lot more attainable than eight back with...

Manager Buck Showalter started Danny Valencia against a right-hander last night, and he put Steve Clevenger behind the plate for the Baltimore native's debut with the Orioles. He also inserted Ryan Flaherty at second base instead of Brian Roberts. And it worked. Showalter handed the ball to closer Jim Johnson in the ninth inning, and the Orioles headed back to their hotel with a 5-3 win over the Blue Jays. Showalter has been an easy second-guess target of late, but his lineup and...

Guess what? He plays good defense. too. Chris Davis is more than a home run hitter. A few days ago, shortstop J.J. Hardy - who knows a little something about defense - threw some props Davis' way for his defense this year. "Unbelievable. From the first day of spring training, he was out early working," Hardy said of Davis and his glove work. "Compared to last year, amazing. Looking at all the other first baseman in the league, I don't know who you could say is doing a better job...

Going into Monday night's game, the Nationals were eight games back of the Reds in the race for the final National League wild card spot. In just five days' time, the wild card deficit has been trimmed nearly in half. Five straight Nats wins combined with three Cincinnati losses in a five-day span has the Nationals 4 1/2 games out (four in the loss column) with 15 games left on Washington's schedule. Still, the Nats say they aren't getting caught up in the excitement of this recent...

Nationals left fielder Bryce Harper made two huge defensive plays in a span of five batters Friday night that severely crippled the Phillies' opportunity for big innings. The Nationals ended up downing the Phillies 6-1. Harper grew up playing catcher with his brother, Bryan, as a left-handed pitcher. At the College of Southern Nevada, Harper was the backstop for a playoff team. Now as a left fielder in his second season in the majors, he put his powerful arm on display from near the...

The Reds just lost to the Brewers, meaning the Nationals are now 4 1/2 games back of the final National League wild card spot (four back in the loss column) with 15 games left. This is getting a bit more interesting. After tonight's 6-1 Nationals win over the Phillies, manager Davey Johnson was asked if he'd taken a peek out at the Reds score on the out-of-town scoreboard at any point tonight. The Nats skipper said that he hadn't, and was then told that Cincinnati was losing. "Oh,"...

Well, that was a great time to hit an historic home run. Chris Davis hit his 50th homer tonight to tie Brady Anderson's club record, and it was a big one. The solo shot gave the Orioles a 4-3 lead over the Blue Jays in the eighth inning, and they beat Toronto 5-3 at Rogers Centre. With the homer, Davis became just the third player in major league history to have a season with at least 50 homers and 40 doubles, joining Babe Ruth (1921) and Albert Belle (1995). Davis led off the eighth and...