SARASOTA, Fla. - The Orioles dive back into their Grapefruit League schedule today, and they're heading down I-75 south toward Fort Myers for the third time in nine games. Brian Matusz gets the start against the Boston Red Sox, who are sending Ryan Dempster to the mound. Matusz's last start also came in Fort Myers, though he faced the Minnesota Twins. He tossed four scoreless and hitless innings, walking one and striking out seven. Manager Buck Showalter may try to get five innings out of...

SARASOTA, Fla. - No doubt Orioles manager Buck Showalter and pitching coach Rick Adair should get credit for how they used the bullpen last year. There was not any overuse of pitchers and they always seem to put the right people in the right spots at the right times. Showalter would even seem to know when to give a certain pitcher an outing, even if the situation didn't necessarily call for his use, to get work to stay sharp. Pitchers were not overused or underused. If they got up to warm...

VIERA, Fla. - The whip is coming, and Jayson Werth is ready. For several days, Nationals manager Davey Johnson has been pulling his regulars aside and telling them that the somewhat leisurely pace that goes along with a seven-week spring training elongated by the World Baseball Classic is about to change drastically. No more veterans begging off from long bus trips, citing the years they've spent and the presence of rookies. "I'm taking everybody," said Johnson, who pinpointed...

VIERA, Fla. - It'll take a lot more than one subpar outing for Nationals manager Davey Johnson to lose faith in new closer Rafael Soriano. Soriano had a hiccup Monday afternoon, coughing up a 1-0 lead in an outing that Johnson said was nowhere near as bad as it looked. "I thought that was the best he's thrown all spring," Johnson said after Soriano yielded four runs on five hits and a walk in two-thirds of an inning, absorbing the loss in a 5-1 defeat. "I thought he made some quality...

SARASOTA, Fla. - Matt Hobgood is nearing the one-year anniversary of his shoulder surgery from last April 2 that kept him out all of last season after he was limited to 37 innings in 2011. He's been dealing with shoulder soreness since he pitched for rookie-level Bluefield in 2009, the year the Orioles made the fifth overall pick in the First-Year Player Draft. Hobgood hopes his injury issues are behind him for good and today he pitched a scoreless inning for Single-A Delmarva against Tampa...

VIERA, Fla. - Jordan Zimmermann isn't usually prone to wordy dissections of his pitching lines, so when the Nationals right-hander spends more than four minutes responding to questions about his performance, you know he's probably done something of note. In this case, it was the kind of spring start that rarely happens: After surrendering a leadoff single to Andy Dirks on Monday, Zimmermann was as locked in as a pitcher can get, retiring the next 18 hitters in order and spraying ground balls...

SARASOTA, Fla. - The Orioles provided Wei-Yin Chen with five innings today and a lesson in facing low-level minor league hitters. Chen took on a lineup filled with Tampa Bay Rays Single-A players in a light, steady rain at Twin Lakes Park. He allowed three runs (two earned) and five hits, with one walk, two strikeouts and one hit batter. The Orioles kept him on the mound for an extra out in the third inning, resulting in his second strikeout, to increase his pitch count. The defense behind...

VIERA, Fla. - When Jordan Zimmermann is on, you can often tell by the number of ground balls he gets. Swings and misses are nice - everybody gets so enamored of strikeouts - but a biting sinker usually translates into many chances for Nationals infielders. Suffice it to say Zimmermann's got some sink to his stuff today. Through three innings against the Tigers, Zimmermann is keeping his infielders hopping. He has gotten seven outs on ground balls and the only batter to get a ball into the...

The Washington Nationals today granted catcher Chris Snyder his unconditional release. Nationals Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement. The Nationals currently have 33 players in their big league camp.

VIERA, Fla. - Another day, another appearance by a Nationals lineup filled with regulars for today's 1:05 p.m. game against the Detroit Tigers at Space Coast Stadium. The Tigers didn't skimp on star power either, bringing their marquee names for the 90-minute drive from Lakeland. For the Tigers: LF - Andy Dirks RF - Torii Hunter 3B - Miguel Cabrera 1B - Prince Fielder DH - Victor Martinez C - Alex Avila CF - Don Kelly 2B - Omar Infante SS - Ramon Santiago RHP - Max Scherzer For the...