The Nationals will look to snap their three-game losing streak tonight in Miami with the first of three games against the Marlins. They'll go into tonight's game without both Danny Espinosa and Adam LaRoche in their starting lineup. Espinosa was hit by a Paul Maholm pitch on the right wrist yesterday and needed to leave the Nationals' game against the Braves after four innings. X-rays on Espinosa's wrist were negative, but the second baseman said after the game that the wrist was sore and...

He has worked his way up and sometimes down on those top Orioles prospects lists. Back at Single-A Delmarva this season, 21-year-old right-hander Parker Bridwell hopes a cleaner, more consistent delivery will lead to better results. The Orioles drafted Bridwell out of Hereford (Texas) High School in the ninth round in 2010. He was ranked by Baseball America as the organization's 12th-best prospect after that season, was fourth after 2011 and rated 23rd after last year, when he went 5-9 with a...

The Nationals entered their weekend series with the Braves trailing Atlanta by a game in the division and feeling pretty good about themselves following a three-game sweep of the White Sox. The Nats leave their weekend series against the Braves suddenly trailing their division rivals by four games in the National League East after they were handed a spanking over the last three days. "I don't think they took us by surprise at all," Denard Span said. "We knew they were a good team coming...

It's hard to blame Nationals fans for feeling down after last weekend's three-game sweep at the hands of the Atlanta Braves. After a big buildup to a supposed early season showdown between the top teams in the National League East - if not the entire NL - the Nats fell flat. Almost every aspect of the game was a disappointment at some point in the series, from Ryan Zimmerman's crucial throwing errors in Friday and Saturday's losses to the bullpen on Friday to the starting pitching and...

We all saw the three-run error committed by Adam Jones in Friday's game at Yankee Stadium. I hesitate to say that it cost the Orioles the game, given that there are so many other aspects to any game than just one play, but I digress. Afterward, Jones did something that should make people stand up and take notice: He took accountability. There were several comments that came out of Jones, however the gist of all of them were, "My bad." It goes without saying that accepting accountability...

The low Single-A Hagerstown Suns placed outfielder J.R. Higley on the disabled list Sunday and Andruth Ramirez was activated. Higley fouled a ball of his foot. His injury is being evaluated further by the Nationals. Higley was hitting .273 in nine games, with two doubles, one triple and four RBIs. The Double-A Harrisburg Senators placed outfielder Steven Souza Jr., on the disabled list Sunday. Catcher Jeff Howell was promoted to Triple-A Syracuse. Catcher Kris Watts was activated from the...

Well, I was hoping to begin this morning's blog with this stat: Since the start of last season the Orioles have played eight series at Boston and New York and won all eight. Make that 7-1 after last night's loss, but that is still a 16-8 record at Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium since last opening day. I think a 6-6 overall record at this point in the season is certainly respectable and acceptable. Of course, a .500 record won't get the Orioles a playoff berth several months from now. But...

NEW YORK - The smile disappeared from Wei-Yin Chen's face tonight. So did most of the words in his vocabulary. Chen was brief in his postgame comments following the Orioles' 3-0 loss to the New York Yankees. He was clearly upset with his performance and his 10th straight regular season start without a win. "I feel like it's an OK performance tonight," Chen said through his interpreter, Tim Lin. All the damage against Chen occurred in the fifth inning, including Brett Gardner's two-run...

In their first appearance on ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball" since 2008, the Orioles' bats were silent as they lost 3-0 to Hiroki Kuroda and the New York Yankees. This game was the decisive in the series, and with a win, the Orioles would have improved to 8-0 in series at Boston and New York since opening day 2012. They went a combined 19-53 in those ballparks from 2008-11 but are 16-8 since the start of last season in Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium. Kuroda threw a complete-game,...

NEW YORK - Orioles left-hander T.J. McFarland got his feet wet in an April 6 game against the Minnesota Twins at Camden Yards. He was tossed into the deep end of the pool last night at Yankee Stadium, and the Rule 5 pick didn't sink to the bottom. McFarland threw two scoreless innings, raising his major league total to 5 1/3. He's allowed two hits and struck out eight. "I felt good," he said. "It was a little cold out there. I was layered up, but I felt good. "You couldn't ask for...