He's back. R.A. Dickey and his confounding knuckleball will present the latest challenge for the Orioles, who don't care to dance with his signature pitch. They couldn't keep up the last time he faced them in a June 18 interleague game with the Mets. Dickey tossed a one-hit shutout in a 5-0 victory. Dickey struck out a career high 13 batters while improving to 11-1 with a 2.00 ERA. Wilson Betemit had the only hit against him, with two outs in the fifth inning. Jake Arrieta also carried a...

It's a good thing the Orioles are playing well early on in games against the AL East because they sure seem to play a lot of games against AL East opponents right now. In fact, this series with Toronto will end a stretch where the Orioles have opened the season playing 15 of their first 21 games against teams from the division. Their 2-1, walk-off win over Toronto Monday night improved the O's record to 8-5 in the East. They have back-to-back walk off wins in division games after Matt...

Dan Haren was asked after tonight's game whether he viewed his outing - in which he allowed three runs on six hits over five-plus innings - as a step in the right direction after failing to reach the sixth inning in any of his previous three starts. "Not really," Haren said. "I want more out of myself than five innings, giving up three runs and (Craig) Stammen bailing me out of that jam. I've been around for 10 years. I'm used to throwing seven, eight innings every time. I've thrown 200...

Monday's 3-2 setback to the Cardinals was the Nationals' second straight loss and seventh in their last 10 games. But shortstop Ian Desmond saw something in the tough defeat, which he believes the team can use to build on for their next game. "We played a much better game," Desmond said. "This was one of our better games of the year. We played good. That one ball just drops in. We are close. That was a good sign." Desmond was up in a critical situation with men on second and third base...

Pete Kozma, the Cardinals' shortstop who delivered a knockout blow to the Nationals in Game 5 of their Division Series in October, returned to a chorus of booing Monday night at Nationals Park. Afterward, he said getting booed was a first. Given what he did against the Nationals last season, including a key two-run single in the Cardinals' 9-7 comeback win in Game 5 of the NLDS, Kozma is becoming to D.C. baseball fans what another shortstop, Bucky Dent, is to the Red Sox. The light-hitting...

After pitching a total of 14 innings over his first three starts, Chris Tillman needed to start getting deeper into games and he did that tonight in the Orioles' 2-1 win over Toronto. Tillman didn't get a decision, but gave his team a strong start, allowing just four hits and one run over 6 2/3 innings to lower his ERA from 7.07 to 5.23. "He had all of his pitches working," catcher Matt Wieters said. "He had four pitches he could throw for strikes. We really didn't even break out the...

As Davey Johnson sat down in front of reporters for his postgame press conference tonight, he let out a deep sigh. The Nationals are now 10-9 on the season after tonight's 3-2 loss to the Cardinals. They're treading water at the moment, searching for signs that they're making progress and on the way to snapping out of this funk to open the 2013 season. Dan Haren failed to retire a batter in the sixth inning for the fourth straight start but, compared to his previous three outings, tonight...

Orioles manager Buck Showalter didn't wait for reporters to fire off questions tonight before commenting on pitcher Chris Tillman, who held the Toronto Blue Jays to one run over 6 2/3 innings. "Tillman was good, huh?" Showalter said after the Orioles' 2-1 victory at Camden Yards. "That was an impressive outing. To have that kind of command of the curveball and off-speed pitches on a night where the feeling in your fingers, ball's slick. That was pretty impressive. I'm proud of...

There was something eerie watching Drew Storen work a perfect eighth inning against the Cardinals last night. More uncanny is the similarity of Ryan Zimmerman going on the DL on both April 20, 2012 and April 21, 2013. Zimmerman was hitting a lusty .224 with a single home run and seven RBIs last year and fast forward to Sunday, and Zimmerman is hitting .226 with a single homer. Last year, Bryce Harper was summoned just a week later. He was well ahead of schedule and started slow. But he caught...

Yesterday, the Orioles sent Jake Arrieta to Triple-A Norfolk after his disappointing start against the Dodgers. Personally, I'm optimistic about Arrieta, as he's a hard-throwing righty who has movement on his pitches and has shown dominance at times when he commands his pitches. The Orioles believe he has the stuff to help them down the road and think his emotions are what affects his mechanics. For now, the O's will replace Arrieta with relief pitcher Alex Burnett. They'll need to add...