Prior to tonight's 6-3 loss to the Braves, a defeat that resulted in the second Atlanta sweep at Nationals Park this season, Davey Johnson threw his back out. He appeared fine after the game, but in the 70-year-old skipper's mind, that injury was symbolic of how this season has gone for his club. The Nats came into this series against Atlanta hoping to, at the very least, take two out of three games and give themselves a shot to possibly claw back into the division race. Instead, they...

Orioles center fielder Adam Jones had three hits today after tallying four last night, the fifth time in his career and the second time this year that he collected three or more hits in consecutive games. It also happened on April 4-5. Jones, a San Diego native, owns a career .550 (11-for-20) average with two home runs and four RBIs in five games at Petco Park. In seven games against the Padres, Jones has hit .464 (13-for-28) with two home runs and six RBIs. Jones now has 74 hits on the road...

Tanner Roark outpitched Jordan Zimmermann by a wide margin today. Baseball can be a funky game. Making his major league debut, Roark, who was called up from Triple-A Syracuse yesterday, pitched two scoreless innings, keeping this game tied 2-2. Roark worked a 1-2-3 fifth inning, his first in relief of Zimmermann (who left after allowing seven hits over four frames), and after surrendering a leadoff bloop single in the sixth, the right-hander needed just two batters to get out of the...

Dating back to last night, the Nationals are 0-for-their-last-15 with 10 strikeouts. Somehow, some way, it keeps finding a way to get worse. The Nats trail 1-0 after three innings tonight and have been set down in order by Kris Medlen to this point. Nine up, nine down. Four strikeouts, five groundouts. Not a single ball hit out of the infield. How much of that is Medlen, who has really looked sharp? How much of it is the Nationals, who continue to scuffle regardless of who is on the mound?...

We hosted a live chat at MASNsports.com during the last Orioles homestand with reliever Darren O'Day. As expected, O'Day was interesting, articulate, told some great stories and answered a lot of fan questions. During these chats, we often find out some interesting things about the players both on and off the field. For instance, O'Day talked about his effectiveness over the years against left-handed batters. A pitcher throwing from his lower arm slot, you would think he'd get...

Chris Davis has been called "Crush" this year and today that nickname fit. Davis crushed a breaking pitch from lefty Colt Hynes in the eighth inning into the right-field stands for a three-run shot that broke a 3-3 tie as the Orioles beat San Diego 10-3 to sweep the two-game series. It was homer No. 41 for Davis and traveled 453 feet. That ties that blast for the second longest homer in the 10-year history of Petco Park. Davis, who has four homers his last eight games, now has 106 RBIs....

A day after Bryce Harper was drilled on the thigh by a Julio Teheran fastball and voiced his displeasure with what he felt was an uncalled-for plunking and saw both benches empty, the chatter about the incident continues. Nationals players continue to believe that Teheran intentionally hit Harper two innings after Harper took Teheran deep and made a slower-than-usual trot around the bases. That hasn't changed in the last 20 or so hours. "No doubt in my mind," one player, who noted that he...

Miguel Gonzalez was cruising today. Then, he hit one of those potholes. Gonzalez surrendered a game-tying, three-run homer to Jedd Gyorko in the bottom of the sixth inning, erasing the Orioles 3-0 lead at Petco Park. Gonzalez has now allowed 13 runs in the sixth this season, most of any inning. He's given up 11 in the fourth and fifth. Gyorko hammered a fastball to center field to tie the game and leave Gonzalez with a no-decision. But Gonzalez did post a quality start after two disastrous...

Manager Davey Johnson has been pleasantly surprised how well Anthony Rendon has come along defensively at second base. It was a position Rendon had only played at a handful of times before arriving in D.C. Johnson noticed Rendon had quick mechanics back in March in Viera, Fla. "I thought his footwork in the spring when we went through a lot of drills was a lot more advanced than I thought it would be, especially for a corner guy," Johnson said. "He has got good feet and he is a smart...

J.J. Hardy has hit more home runs than any shortstop in the American League this season, and he increased the margin this afternoon with his 19th to give the Orioles a 1-0 lead in the second inning. Hardy drove an 89 mph fastball from Eric Stults - the Padres left-hander, not the actor who played Rocky Dennis in "Mask" - over the fence in left field. Wasn't much doubt about it. Sort of like Adam Jones' shot last night. Colorado's Troy Tulowitzki leads all shortstops with 20 home runs....