Several times in recent weeks when talking about the great season Chris Davis is having, manager Buck Showalter has mentioned that he is proud of how Davis has handled the added attention of his success this year. The latest example of Davis making his skipper proud came off the field yesterday. Davis did an appearance at Catonsville High School on behalf of AT&T to educate students and faculty on the dangers of texting while driving and generate awareness for AT&T's "It Can Wait" campaign....

ATLANTA - Bryce Harper is out of the Nationals lineup for the fifth straight game because of bursitis in his left knee, leaving manager Davey Johnson to again try and piece together an outfield alignment featuring multiple bench players and a batting order that includes multiple guys with batting averages below the Mendoza Line. Johnson has opted to sit Tyler Moore for tonight's series opener against the Braves, instead going with Steve Lombardozzi in left field and Roger Bernadina in...

Chris Dickerson is in the Orioles lineup tonight as the designated hitter, his first start since May 23 in Toronto. Dickerson has one at-bat since making that start. The rest of the lineup is predictable. For the Orioles Nate McLouth LF Manny Machado 3B Nick Markakis RF Adam Jones CF Chris Davis 1B Matt Wieters C J.J. Hardy SS Chris Dickerson DH Ryan Flaherty 2B Miguel Gonzalez RHP For the Tigers Omar Infante 2B Andy Dirks LF Miguel Cabrera 3B Prince Fielder 1B Victor Martinez...

ATLANTA - Hello from lovely Atlanta, where you'll have trouble finding a Pepsi anywhere and the tomahawk chop plays seemingly every 27 seconds at Turner Field. The Nationals open a big three-game set with the Braves tonight, and given that Davey Johnson's boys come into this series already 5 1/2 games back of their first-place hosts, this could be a relatively big weekend, at least as a May-June series goes. Forgive me for stating the obvious, but things won't be affected too much if the...

Here's a nugget for lunch, which isn't deep-fried and doesn't come with any dipping sauces: According to the MLB Network, Manny Machado has the most hits in a month (44) by a player under 21 since Mickey Mantle had 46 in July 1952. Machado leads the majors with 25 doubles - Boston's Mike Napoli is next with 19 - and he's tied with Detroit's Miguel Cabrera with 79 hits. The Tigers are in town tonight to start a three-game series. I wonder if the Machado-Cabrera angle will get the proper...

On Wednesday morning at McCormick Field in Asheville, N.C., 22-year-old 2011 third-round pick Matt Purke made his first start of the season for the low Single-A Hagerstown Suns. It was just the fourth professional start for the 6-foot-4 left-hander and one-time Texas Rangers first-round pick who failed to sign with Texas, went to college instead and suffered a shoulder injury, which caused his stock to drop and left him available for selection by the Nationals when the 96th pick of the 2011...

Another sign that the Nationals will surely move out of Space Coast Stadium in Viera, Fla., in the near future comes today courtesy of Florida Toady, the daily newspaper serving Brevard County (with a tip of the ol' ballcap to Federal Baseball). According to the paper, the Nationals have informed Brevard County commissioners of their intention to exit the facility as early as November 2014. The team's lease on Space Coast Stadium runs through 2017, but the Nationals can break the agreement...

The Orioles and Nationals wrapped up the 2013 edition of the Battle of the Beltways on Thursday night with the O's winning their third game of the four-game, split-stadium series. The series got me to thinking about the early days of this match-up and how much I'd forgotten since these two teams starting playing each other again. And then there's the stuff I never knew from the original days of Baltimore-Washington baseball. I took a look back at the first games between the two franchises in...

The only time that the Nationals were at or below the .500 mark all of last year was four games into the season, when they were the owners of a 2-2 record. That's not to suggest that the Nats' ride in 2012 didn't have some bumps along the way, because it definitely did. But one thing is certain - the first third of this year's ride has been a heck of a lot more turbulent than what we saw during the 2012 regular season. The Nationals are 27-27 after their first 54 games of the 2013...

Before Freddy Garcia pitched eight shutout innings last night, Orioles starting pitchers had pitched to an ERA of 4.90 on the year. That ranked 12th in the American League, ahead of only Toronto, Houston and Minnesota. Those three clubs are a combined 33 games under .500 and two of the three reside in last place. That is not the company the Orioles want to be keeping. But here is a stat to keep in mind: The Orioles' starting pitcher ERA was 4.77 last year at the All-Star break. The starting...