Left-hander Matt Purke will make his season debut for the low Single-A Hagerstown Suns at Asheville on Wednesday night, according to Nationals director of player development Doug Harris. This is good news for the former Texas Christian star, who has not pitched in a professional game since early 2012. Purke, ranked by Baseball America as the Nationals' No. 9 prospect, has been recovering from offseason shoulder surgery. The procedure was to relieve bursitis in his left shoulder and remove...

WASHINGTON - Tommy Hunter said he won't undergo a second X-ray on his right hand. There's minimal swelling and bruising, and he expects to be available on Tuesday. Hunter probably will play catch today. "It's fine," he said. "Feels like it got hit by a ball, but other than that, it'll be all right. Kind of like taking one off the shin, I guess. it's not that bad at all. It's going to be. Got me in the meat of it. But it'll be all right, hopefully. Maybe I'll get a day off today....

The Washington Nationals placed left-handed pitcher Ross Detwiler on the 15-Day Disabled List, retroactive to May 16, with a right back muscle strain and recalled left-handed pitcher Xavier Cedeno from Syracuse of the Triple-A International League. Nationals Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement. Cedeno - selected off waivers on April 23, after posting an 11.37 ERA in five relief appearances in '13 with Houston - went 1-0 with a...

Raise your hand if you expected the following players to have made an appearance on the Nationals' active roster by the end of May: Yunesky Maya, Fernando Abad, Jeff Kobernus, Eury Perez and Xavier Cedeno. Stop being silly. Put your hand down. All teams have to deal with injuries over the course of a season. It's a part of sports, and it tests the all-important depth that your team has built up within its organization. The Nationals have been hit with a pretty difficult test within the...

Two weeks ago, Stephen Strasburg was taken to task in this space for basically acting childish on the mound. He lost his composure after a throwing error in a scoreless game against the Chicago Cubs, allowing four unearned runs to score and letting the game get out of hand. It was a game he - and just about all Nationals fans - would like to forget. It seems that's exactly what happened. In three starts since that tragic outing at Nationals Park, Strasburg has pitched more like the mature...

First of all, I don't have great answers to the two pressing questions of the day: What is wrong with Jim Johnson and will Buck Showalter give Johnson the ball today at Washington if a save situation presents itself? As for the second question, Showalter did say he would go to Johnson today on the MASN postgame interview Sunday. However, you have to wonder if Johnson will even be available after throwing 14 pitches Saturday and 37 yesterday. Now here are the raw numbers: Over his last six...

If the Orioles take a slim lead into the bottom of the ninth inning today at Nationals Park, I'd bet that Darren O'Day would be used as the closer. Not because manager Buck Showalter is ready to assign Jim Johnson's duties to another reliever. I still don't believe that he's reached that point. But Johnson threw 37 pitches yesterday and 51 over the past two games. He's probably not available today. Tommy Hunter's right hand was swollen yesterday after fielding Jose Bautista's hard...

Bryce Harper aggravated his bruised left knee and expects to deal with the injury the rest of this season. Ross Detwiler will need to land on the disabled list with a strained oblique and won't be able to make Tuesday's start. "Other than that," Nationals manager Davey Johnson said with a smile, "it was a great day." The Nats got eight tremendous innings from Stephen Strasburg and a big five-run seventh inning broke a scoreless tie, lifting the Nats to a 6-1 win in this afternoon's...

The violent collision between Bryce Harper and the right field wall at Dodger Stadium won't just affect Harper in the short-term. It seems it will pose at least somewhat of a problem for the reigning National League Rookie of the Year throughout the remainder of this season. Harper has been held out of the starting lineup in four of the Nationals' last 12 games, and he was pulled from today's game for a pinch runner in the seventh inning after aggravating his bruised left knee in the first....

The injuries continue to mount for the Nationals. Davey Johnson revealed after today's game that left-hander Ross Detwiler, who hasn't started since May 15 because of a right oblique strain, will need to land on the disabled list after feeling tightness in the oblique while working out today. "He went out and was doing some running and playing catch and complained," Johnson said. "Whereas it's better than it was, it's tight and we didn't feel like it was the best thing. ... We're not...