It's been a bit of a rough year for Drew Storen. Elbow surgery wiped out the entire first half of his season and forced him through a lengthy and trying rehab process. When he did come back, his closer job had been taken by his good friend and roommate, Tyler Clippard. You won't hear Storen complain about what he's been through or the situation that he's currently in. He'd love to be closing games, sure, but he's more than happy contributing to a winning Nationals team and being one of...

The Orioles extended their remarkable run of consecutive extra-inning victories to 15 this week with wins in 18 and 11 innings against Seattle. Overall, the O's are 15-2 in extra-inning games in 2012. Explanations for the team's success in extra frames are varied; however, the historical marker you'll hear referenced most often is that the current 15-game extra-inning streak is the longest such effort since 1949, when the Cleveland Indians won 17 straight extra-inning games. History tends to...

Nationals fans no longer have to dream of the day their team makes the playoffs. It's a reality. Thursday's night's win over the Dodgers put the city of Washington, D.C., in the baseball postseason for the first time since 1933 and this franchise in the playoffs for the first time in 31 years. The team that moved to Washington to become the Nationals, the Montreal Expos, made its first - and only - National League playoff appearance in 1981. In a year when baseball fans endured a nearly...

The last time Davey Johnson managed a playoff team, the year was 1997 and he was in Baltimore. Johnson led the Orioles to a 98-win season and a spot in the American League Championship Series. He was named AL Manager of the Year after that season, and then, due to a disagreement with ownership, was promptly was out of a job the same day that he was given the award. Fifteen years later, Johnson again has managed his team to the postseason and again finds himself in the Manager of the Year...

For Manny Machado, it all started in early June. What began then at Double-A Bowie was a process of Machado starting to take early work before batting practice at third base and it all eventually led to his call-up to Baltimore, where the natural shortstop would play third base. He is playing there after starting in all of two games this year at Bowie at third. But Machado obviously took to the position and the Orioles' minor league coaches could see in early June that he would do well at...

The Nationals have been talking for the last couple weeks about how they didn't have their eyes set on a mere playoff berth. Loftier goals were ahead, they said, like the NL East title. Once they clinched a wild card spot tonight, they weren't about to get too caught up in this moment. After all, as Ian Desmond noted tonight, "This pretty much means that if we lose every game from here on out, we get to play one more game." Still, the Nats couldn't help but pop open a little champagne...

When Davey Johnson walked into the press conference room following tonight's 4-1 win over the Dodgers, a large group of fans looking on through a glass window in the Presidents' Club started applauding. "What's the big deal?" Johnson said, a giant smile creeping across his face. Oh, nothing. You just locked up a postseason berth for the first time in team history and gave D.C. its first playoff baseball team in the last 79 years. That's all. "That was fun but that's not what I had...

With Miguel Gonzalez taking the mound tonight at Fenway Park - figuratively speaking, of course, since removing the actual mound would be both time consuming and some sort of Major League Baseball violation - I figured it was appropriate to pass along a few of the Orioles' international signings that may have flown under the radar. Fred Ferreira, the Orioles' executive director of international recruiting, signed Gonzalez in early May after scouting him in the Mexican League and Caribbean...

Left-hander Ross Detwiler became the fourth Nationals pitcher to win at least 10 games this season, twirling six innings and allowing just one run in a 4-1 playoff-clinching win at Nationals Park. Detwiler did not allow a hit through three innings, allowed a solo homer to Mark Ellis in the fourth, but then only two other singles to improve to 10-6. At one point, he threw his fastball 13 out of 15 pitches, and 43 times on the night. He walked just one hitter to lead off the sixth, which could...

Congratulations, D.C. For the first time in 79 years, you now officially are the home of a playoff baseball team. The same Nationals who lost 103 games three seasons ago are now heading to the postseason, this after notching a 4-1 win over the Dodgers tonight. There is no giant pile-up on the field as the Nats celebrate, and we don't expect to see any champagne in the clubhouse. The Nats have their eyes set on a bigger goal - winning the National League East, and there's still a little ways...