Orioles left-hander Wei-Yin Chen is seeking his third consecutive win tonight since coming off the disabled list. He also could intensify the debate over which Orioles starter qualifies as the ace. Is it Chen, Chris Tillman or Miguel Gonzalez? Chen has allowed two runs and 11 hits in his last two starts covering 13 1/3 innings - both against the Rangers. He's posted seven quality starts among his 10 outings, and he was headed for another on May 12 with five scoreless innings in Minnesota...

One hundred games into last season, the Nationals owned a 60-40 record, tied for the best mark in the majors. They were 20 games over .500 and had a four-game lead in the National League East. This year's Nats are 12 games off that pace, at 48-52. They're four games under .500, eight games out of first in the NL East and 8 1/2 games back of the final Wild Card spot. I could drop a line about what a difference a year makes, but I think that's pretty clear at this point, don't you? The...

With the Nats having not won a game after the All-Star break and in the midst of a 2-10 stretch, there are many looking at the Nationals as sellers. The only problem is the Nats don't have a lot to sell, and that isn't because they don't have talent. Any contending team would love to have Jordan Zimmermann, Bryce Harper, Anthony Rendon, Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez or Ian Desmond. The only issue is that they are integral to the Nats' success going forward. The core pieces of the roster...

Give Dan Duquette credit for this at least - he never stops trying to make this team better and he acts quickly when needed. In acquiring Scott Feldman, the timing was important to me. He got him early in the process, early this month, making him available for more starts to help the team. With several top teams reportedly bearing down on Francisco Rodriguez in trade talks, including Boston, Duquette got the reliever and other contending teams did not. To get him, the Orioles had to give up...

Following losses both Sunday afternoon and Monday night, reporters approached Jayson Werth to discuss his two-homer performance (something that happened both days) and another tough defeat. Both of those interviews were brief, with a frustrated Werth not wanting to answer what he called "gloom and doom" questions. Tonight, things were different. Werth called reporters over to his locker and opened up about the Nationals' play of late. He only took three questions before ending the...

The Orioles will add newly acquired Francisco Rodriguez to their bullpen for tonight's game in Kansas City, subtracting reliever Jairo Asencio or a bench player. Sending down Asencio would be the logical move, but MASN's Gary Thorne suggested multiple times during last night's broadcast that infielder Danny Valencia is more likely to be optioned. Nothing against Asencio, but I think most of us would agree that Rodriguez is an upgrade for a team that's trying to win the division and make a...

He is getting closer. Right-hander Taylor Jordan had allowed only two earned runs through seven innings Tuesday. But again the Nationals could not score runs, and he trailed, 3-1. Manager Davey Johnson liked what he was seeing from Jordan and with a low pitch count, and wanted to give the youngster a shot in the eighth inning to earn his first major league victory. "He pitched so good in the seventh, I was going to take him out for the left-hander, but I thought he deserved the chance to...

Again, while the line score might not indicate it, Taylor Jordan pitched well enough to win tonight. Instead, the Nationals' rookie right-hander dropped to 0-3 on the season with tonight's 5-1 loss. Jordan allowed five runs (four earned) over 7 2/3 innings, but he got minimal help from his defense and the Nationals' bats. Two Pirates runs followed Anthony Rendon's second-inning error, an miscue that came on a potential inning-ending double play, and another run charged to Jordan came...

Jason Hammel kept walking the tightrope, but he never quite fell off. However, the O's bats didn't have their usual night tonight, and Hammel took the loss as Kansas City beat the Orioles 3-2. The Orioles' rally in the ninth against Royals closer Greg Holland came up short. Adam Jones produced an RBI triple with no outs to pull the O's within 3-2, but then Holland got Chris Davis to strike out, J.J. Hardy to ground out and Henry Urrutia to ground out as the potential tying run was stranded...

The Nationals are being outscored by the Pirates 5-1 midway through the eighth. They're being outhit 10-2. At least they hold lead in one category - errors, where they have a 2-0 edge tonight. They've got that going for them, so that's nice. The box score says that Taylor Jordan allowed five runs tonight, four of which were earned. And that's true, of course. But making his fifth career major league start, Jordan pitched a heck of a lot better than the box score indicates. The rookie...