After the Orioles left a season-high 15 on base and went 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position, Adam Jones was asked if the players needed to change their approach tonight during some key at-bats? "You can't change your approach," Jones said. "Once you change, other things will start failing. If you are an aggressive hitter, you have to go up there and be aggressive. We are an aggressive team and sometimes (David) Price used that against us, getting us out the zone a little bit. "Any...

CHICAGO - Coming into today, the Cubs had only scored 10 or more runs once this entire season. They had scored one run or fewer in four of their last six games. They put up 11 on Jordan Zimmermann and company tonight. The Cubs had nine hits today, five of which left the ballpark. Three of those longballs came off Zimmermann, who worked just five innings and allowed a season-high eight runs, falling to 14-7 on the season with the loss. "Zim left the ball up. This is a ballpark, you leave the...

Orioles manager Buck Showalter has gotten really good at shedding a positive light on his team's inability to hit with runners in scoring position. Whenever a reporter points out the failings on a given night, Showalter counters with how he's pleased with the Orioles' ability to put men on base and present those opportunities. The Orioles stranded 15 tonight in a 4-3 loss to Tampa Bay. Frustrating? "Yeah, it is," Showalter said. "I know you're saying my line before I give it, but...

A long night of missed chances ended with the Orioles losing a key game to Tampa Bay and feeling like the result would have been much different with just one or two clutch hits that never came. The Orioles set a new season high by leaving 15 men on base tonight and they went 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position in a 4-3 loss to the Rays in the series opener at Camden Yards. The O's missed chances read like this tonight: * Runners on second and third with one out in the second and no...

CHICAGO - The Cubs are absolutely laying into Jordan Zimmermann. Three home runs, two of them three-run shots, have been hit off the Nationals' right-hander, who now trails 8-0 after five innings. Nate Schierholtz crushed a three-run shot to right four batters into the bottom of the first. Donnie Murphy smoked a solo shot to right leading off the fourth. And three batters into the fifth, Dioner Navarro demolished a Zimmermann offering out to right for another three-run blast. Add in two...

Orioles catcher Matt Wieters tied tonight's game in the bottom of the third inning with a double that scored Manny Machado, who led off with a single and advanced to third base on Adam Jones' single. Wieters barely missed a three-run homer, the ball hitting a few inches below the top of the center field fence and eluding the glove of Tampa Bay's Desmond Jennings, who almost made a spectacular catch. For a moment, it appeared that Wieters had a home run. Then it appeared that Jennings had...

CHICAGO - At around 1 p.m., David DeJesus looked down at his cell phone and saw that he had a missed call from Cubs team president Theo Epstein. DeJesus and his wife Kim were out getting green juice at the time, and DeJesus mentioned who the missed call was from. "You probably got traded," Kim DeJesus joked. They weren't laughing a few minutes later. DeJesus quickly called Epstein back and learned the news - that he'd been shipped from the Cubs to the Nats in exchange for a player to be...

CHICAGO - The Nationals came into this year feeling like they had a solid, well-rounded bench, based largely upon what guys like Roger Bernadina, Chad Tracy, Tyler Moore and Steve Lombardozzi had done in 2012. After watching those guys struggle for much of this season, however, the Nats made another deal with the Cubs to add a bench player today (their second such deal with Chicago in six weeks), acquiring veteran outfielder David DeJesus for a player to be named later. The move led to the...

Orioles starter Chris Tillman retired the first two batters in the first inning tonight. Then he faced Evan Longoria. That's not a favorable matchup for Tillman. Longoria drove a 91 mph fastball over the fence in right-center field to give Tampa Bay an early 1-0 lead over the Orioles at Camden Yards. Longoria is now 10-for-22 with four home runs lifetime against Tillman, who is making a third attempt to win his 15th game this season. Tillman threw 25 pitches in the first. Tillman has...

CHICAGO - Ryan Zimmerman was held out of the Nationals' lineup in yesterday's series finale at Atlanta due to a bruised left shin, but he's back in there today. Zimmerman is hitting second today, with Anthony Rendon moving down to the No. 8 spot in the order. Wilson Ramos is back behind the plate after getting yesterday off to recover from catching all 15 innings Saturday night into Sunday morning. For the Nats CF Denard Span 3B Ryan Zimmerman LF Bryce Harper RF Jayson Werth 1B Adam...