PHILADELPHIA - Both Denard Span and Adam LaRoche are out of the Nationals lineup for tonight's series opener against the Phillies. Span fouled yet another ball off his right foot yesterday (something he's done quite a bit over the last couple of months) and will get today off. So will LaRoche, who is mired in an 0-for-15 slump, with six strikeouts in his last four games. With Phillies left-hander John Lannan getting the ball tonight, Nats manager Davey Johnson is sitting two left-handed...

It never gets old. And neither does Manny Machado, who's still only 20. Machado has 99 hits this season. According to Elias, if he gets his 100th hit tonight, he will tie Alex Rodriguez (100 hits in 71 games in 1996) and Ty Cobb (100 hits in 71 games in 1907) for third-fewest games reaching 100 hits to start a season by a player under 21. Al Kaline (101 hits in 68 games in 1955) and Mike Trout (100 hits in 69 games in 2012) are the only players under 21 to reach 100 hits in a season faster...

Bryan Harvey, the former big league pitcher and father of the O's top draft pick, said he expects negotiations with the Orioles to sign Hunter Harvey to heat up and maybe even conclude this week. "Hopefully, they start talking today," Bryan Harvey said. "They called last week and said be patient. They had a couple things they wanted to get done, so hopefully we get everything going and it gets done this week. "I don't think there should be that big of a holdup. It's not like we're...

The Nationals announced that they've signed 22 of the 39 players they selected in the 2013 First-Year Player Draft, including eight of their first nine draft picks. Among those to have agreed to terms so far are right-hander Jacob Johansen (second round), third baseman Drew Ward (third), right-hander Austin Voth (fifth), third baseman Cody Gunter (sixth), first baseman Jimmy Yezzo (seventh), left-hander David Napoli (eighth), right-hander Jake Joyce (ninth) and shortstop Brennan Middleton...

On Thursday at Camden Yards, in a game the Orioles would win in 13 innings, Brian Matusz came on in relief of Kevin Gausman in the sixth inning. In the seventh inning, Boston scored twice off Matusz. Why is that significant? Because Boston would not score against the Orioles bullpen for the rest of the four-game series. Beginning with the eighth inning Thursday through the end of Sunday's game - when Jim Johnson ended it getting his 25th save - the Red Sox did very little against the O's...

The Washington Nationals have agreed to terms with 22 players selected in the 2013 First-Year Player Draft: right-handed pitcher Jacob Johansen (second round), third baseman Drew Ward (third round), right-handed pitcher Austin Voth (fifth round), third baseman/catcher Cody Gunter (sixth round), first baseman Jimmy Yezzo (seventh round), left-handed pitcher David Napoli (eighth round), right-handed pitcher Jake Joyce (ninth round), shortstop Brennan Middleton (10th round), shortstop David...

Triple-A Syracuse shortstop Zach Walters has really gotten hot at the plate in the past nine games. Especially the most recent six games, where he has connected for 12 hits. Walters has done so well that the International League announced today that Walters has been named Batter of the Week for the period from June 10-16. Walters is the first member of the Chiefs to win a weekly award this season. The week has also demonstrated Walters' power - he hit three of his 14 homers since June...

I spoke last night with a friend of mine who's one of these people who takes and analyzes everything literally. I might also throw in that this guy is not in any way, shape or form, a baseball person. His opinion of baseball is that the pitcher throws, and the batter hits and runs. According to him it's that simple. Luckily we all know better. In fairness, when this person mentioned that he watched yesterday's series finale with Boston, he said that he was impressed with the Orioles. I...

Looks like things didn't change all that much while I was away for the last few days. The Nationals picked up a dramatic win over the Indians on Saturday, plating seven runs and getting a huge ninth-inning, game-winning homer from the red-hot Anthony Rendon. You think maybe things will start to turn for the Nats, that they'll be able to ride a little momentum and start stringing together a few games of strong offensive production. Then they're shut out by the Indians yesterday, going...

As the Nationals struggled again to bring runners home in their 2-0 loss in Cleveland on Sunday, their fans must have been fuming. With apologies to Casey Stengel, or whoever initiated the quote that became the title of Jimmy Breslin's book chronicling the 1962 Mets, the question, "Can't anybody here play this game?" comes to mind. Eleven times, Washington hitters came to bat with at least one runner in scoring position, and eleven times, they failed to get the runner home. Four of...