With his right foot still bothering him after he fouled a ball off it in the 10th inning of yesterday's loss to the Twins, Denard Span will not play in the first game of today's doubleheader. Span will get his foot checked out by team medical personnel, and manager Davey Johnson told his center fielder that he'll need him for Game 2 of the doubleheader. Assuming Span is feeling OK later today, he'll try and play through the soreness in that foot. In Game 1, however, it'll be Jeff...

The Washington Nationals today recalled first baseman/outfielder Chris Marrero from Syracuse of the Triple-A International League. Nationals Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement. Marrero batted .306 (64-for-209) with nine doubles, one triple, 10 home runs, 44 RBI, 14 walks and 26 runs scored in 55 games this season with Syracuse. His RBI total ranks fourth in the International League. The 24-year-old appeared in 31 games with...

The Nationals have taken advantage of a rule that allows teams to bring up a 26th player for doubleheaders, recalling first baseman Chris Marrero from Triple-A Syracuse. General manager Mike Rizzo said the Nats will decide after today who will be sent down in order to get the roster back to 25. Marrero last appeared with the Nationals in 2011, when he hit .248 with 10 RBIs in 31 games. In November of that year, he underwent surgery to repair a torn left hamstring sustained while playing in...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Orioles manager Buck Showalter will try to salvage the last game of this series by using his right-handed lineup today against Rays lefty Matt Moore. Nick Markakis is leading off and J.J. Hardy is batting third. Danny Valencia is the designated hitter and Steve Pearce is starting in left field. Alexi Casilla is starting at second base. For the Orioles Nick Markakis RF Manny Machado 3B J.J. Hardy SS Adam Jones CF Chris Davis 1B Matt Wieters C Danny Valencia DH Steve...

The Orioles made a total of 41 selections in the 2013 First Year Player Draft. The club chose 14 high school players and 27 college players. Right-handed pitchers accounted for 13 of the selections and 10 left-handed pitchers were chosen. The Orioles also took nine infielders, five outfielders and four catchers. ROUND PLAYER POS 1 (22), Hunter Harvey, RHP CBA (37), Joshua Hart, CF 2 (61), Chance Sisco, CA 3 (98), Stephen Tarpley, LHP 4 (129), Jonah Heim, CA 5 (159),...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Orioles had collected at least two extra-base hits in 34 consecutive games, a streak that ended Friday night at Tropicana Field. And they didn't start a new one yesterday. The Orioles were held to four hits, all singles. They've totaled one run and six hits in the first two games of their series against the Rays. Forget the angst over Kevin Gausman. Where's the offense? "Well, we're facing a pretty good pitching staff," said first baseman Chris Davis after...

Remember all the O's offense we were talking about just a few games ago? It has taken a vacation recently. Coming into the Detroit series last weekend, the Orioles were batting .311 in their previous 19 games and scoring 5.6 runs per game in that stretch. In the eight games since then, the O's are batting just .235 and scoring only 3.6 runs per game. They have scored four runs or less in six of their last seven games. Remember all the runs the O's had been getting against Tampa Bay? They...

Another frustrating loss, another postgame press conference where Davey Johnson tries to sum up what's going wrong with his team. The Nationals fell to the Twins 4-3 in 11 innings today, dropping Johnson's team two games under .500 for the first time this season. The Nats had 10 hits but went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and didn't draw a single walk. Over their last seven games, the Nats have drawn a total of five walks. The offensive woes and overall effort might end up...

The Nationals have completed the First-Year Player draft, making their final seven picks (click here and here to get a rundown of today's previous draft action from MASNsports.com's Byron Kerr). At this point, most clubs are doing some serious prospecting on guy who may or may not pan out, but the Nationals came up with a couple of interesting names in the draft's later rounds. They took left-hander Jake Walsh out of Missouri with thir 34th-round pick, then followed up in the 35th with...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Orioles manager Buck Showalter was more concerned about the lack of offense in today's 8-0 loss to the Rays than anything that happened to rookie starter Kevin Gausman. The Orioles have scored once in the first two games of the series. The last 15 batters were retired today. Gausman was charged with seven runs in 4 1/3 innings, the last three on Luke Scott's bases-loaded triple off Rule 5 pick T.J. McFarland. "I think he was pretty good, all things considered,"...