CHICAGO - What was a five-run lead is now gone. And we have a tie ballgame. The Nationals had a comfortable 6-1 advantage going to the bottom of the fifth, and just like that, the Cubs have come back to knot this game 6-6. The Cubs batted around in the fifth, sending 10 hitters to the plate and notching seven hits. Ross Ohlendorf surrendered a two-run homer to Anthony Rizzo (Rizzo's second longball of the night) that made it 6-3, and then the Cubs ran off five straight singles. The final...

Chris Davis hit his 46th home run tonight to tie Jim Gentile for third on the O's single-season homer list as the Orioles beat Tampa Bay 4-2 in front of 28,323 at Camden Yards. With the win, the O's salvage a game in this series, end Tampa Bay's five-game winning streak here and beat the Rays for just the second time in the last nine meetings. There was a save opportunity in the ninth, but Jim Johnson didn't pitch. Darren O'Day started the inning, Brian Matusz came on to pitch to a...

CHICAGO - Last night, the Nationals put 21 runners on base and just four of them came around to score. Through two innings tonight, they've put four runners on and plated three of them. That's a much better ratio there, fellas. The Nats have a 3-1 lead going to the third thanks to a couple hard-fought at-bats, a hot-shot Kurt Suzuki groundball that got under the glove of Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo and a well-executed squeeze by Ross Ohlendorf. With one out in the inning, Ian Desmond...

Chris Davis led off the bottom of the fifth inning with his 46th home run, the ball disappearing over the flag court in right field to give the Orioles a 4-2 lead. Davis tied Jim Gentile for third place on the Orioles' single-season home run list. Frank Robinson his 49 in 1966 and Brady Anderson hit 50 in 1996. There's more. Davis has 25 homers at Camden Yards this season, tying Rafael Palmeiro's record set in 1998. Robinson has the most home runs in one season in Baltimore. He hit 27 at...

Orioles left fielder Nate McLouth is a big fan of '80s pop music, and he's continued to use Mr. Mister's "Kyrie" as his walk-up song all season. Not your typical choice among major league players. I doubt if many of his teammates are borrowing his iPod. Mired in an 0-for-17 slump, McLouth decided to make a change tonight, going with Journey's "Separate Ways." Maybe it sounds silly to think that a new tune will influence an at-bat, but McLouth lined a single into left field leading off...

CHICAGO - When the Nationals optioned Danny Espinosa to Triple-A Syracuse in mid-June, they certainly hoped that the struggling second baseman would be able to get on track in the minors and then come back up to help the big league club in some capacity this season. At this point, however, it's not looking likely that we'll see Espinosa in the majors the rest of this year. Manager Davey Johnson seemed to indicate today that Espinosa's chances of being among the Nats' September call-ups...

Orioles catcher Matt Wieters is doing his usual damage against the Rays, going 4-for-8 with a double, two home runs, four RBIs, a walk and four runs scored in the first two games of this series. He's batting .337 against the Rays since breaking into the majors in 2009, the highest average for any player. His 50 RBIs also rank first, and his 15 homers are tied for second. Wieters is heating up again as the regular season winds down. Despite the physical strain of catching, Wieters is a career...

If Wei-Yin Chen gets deep into the game here tonight against Tampa Bay, do the Orioles have to tread very lightly when he reaches the 100-pitch count? The stat sheet says yes. First of all, Chen's ERA is 11.25 from the seventh inning on, with four homers allowed over eight innings. Secondly, his batting average against, which is just .213 on his 76th to 100th pitches, balloons to .500 with an OPS of 1.931 on pitches 101 and up. Chen has allowed eight hits in 16 at-bats this year on pitches...

The Washington Nationals today returned from rehab and reinstated right-handed pitcher Ross Ohlendorf from the 15-day disabled list and optioned left-handed pitcher Ian Krol to Syracuse. Nationals President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement. Ohlendorf is the Nationals' scheduled starting pitcher tonight at Wrigley Field. The 31 year-old Ohlendorf is 2-0 with one hold and a 1.85 ERA (7 ER/34.0 IP) in 10 games/two starts in his first season with the...

While the Orioles fight to stay in playoff contention, the organization is mailing out postseason invoices to its season plan holders on Friday. The invoices will be delivered to fans with full-season, 29-game and 13-game packages. Full-season plan holders are entitled to purchase tickets for every postseason home game - a maximum of 11 possible - including four World Series and four American League Championship Series games. Fans with a 29-game plan are entitled to six games, and fans with...