Davey Johnson sat down for his postgame press conference and flashed a smile. "Well, there's not much to say about that one," he said. Not much positive stuff, anyway. The Nationals lost to the Marlins 8-0 today, putting the wraps on a 8-3 homestand. All in all, the Nats should be pretty pleased with how they played over the last week and a half, but they did very little today against Ricky Nolasco, who has thrown back-to-back shutouts against them. "He can get nasty when he starts...

Nick Markakis just told reporters that the surgery he will have tomorrow to repair his broken left thumb could have him back playing baseball again in "around four weeks" - if the Orioles are still playing games then. "It's good and bad," Markakis said. "They said the surgery will actually knock off about three weeks of recovery. So, hopefully we are looking at somewhere around four weeks. You know, it's good news and bad news, I'm just going to go ahead and get it done and get it out...

Orioles right fielder Nick Markakis is expected to undergo surgery on his broken left thumb Monday in Sarasota. The decision was made after Markakis had a CT scan on the thumb this morning at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Rather than have an MRI on Monday, Markakis will fly down to Sarasota, where Dr. Brian Schofield - the same surgeon who removed the piece of broke hamate bone from his right wrist this summer - will insert a small plate in his left thumb. Update: The Orioles just announced that...

Zach Britton took the mound today with a record of 4-0 and ERA of 0.94 over his previous four starts. But it didn't go nearly that well for him, and he allowed five runs over 3 1/3 innings as the Yankees crushed the Orioles 13-3 at Camden Yards to gain a split of their four-game series. The Yankees arrived in town Thursday with a one-game American League East lead and will leave with that same edge on the Orioles. Today's game drew 40,346 to the Yard and the four-date series attracted...

A day after the Nationals packed an offensive punch, put together some late-inning dramatics and smacked four more home runs, their bats have been dead silent through four innings against Ricky Nolasco. Same can't be said for the Marlins' bats against Edwin Jackson. The Nats trail 5-0 after four innings, as they've yet to record a hit against Nolasco and also watched as Miami has put up seven hits and two multi-run innings. Jackson allowed three runs in the second inning on four straight...

The Orioles have a chance today to do a few things they have not done since 1997. For one, a win over the Yankees would give them the season series versus New York, 10 wins to eight. The last time they won a season series against New York was in 1997, when they went 8-4. The Orioles are 3-5 in Baltimore and 6-3 in New York, where they won all three series this year. A win today gives the Orioles sole possession of first place in the American League East. They last did that this late in the...

The Orioles are playing from behind again. Zach Britton gave up a run and two hits, walked a batter and was hurt by an error in the top of the first inning. He threw 24 pitches before making it back into the dugout. Derek Jeter reached on another infield hit and took second on Manny Machado's errant throw. Machado has two errors with the Orioles, one of them legit. Alex Rodriguez bounced into a 6-4-3 double play, but Robinson Cano followed with an RBI single. Shortstop J.J. Hardy...

There is no question that losing Nick Markakis is a big loss for the Orioles. But one thing they may add to the leadoff spot with Nate McLouth batting there is a base stealing threat atop the order. McLouth said he has the green light to run and may look to do that more when batting first. "I think that is a good point (that he can use his speed more batting first). Hitting third, having (Adam) Jones and (Matt) Wieters right behind me, a lot of times you want to let those guys hit. Not...

The Orioles plan on selecting Endy Chavez's contract on Tuesday, giving them an extra outfielder and a plus-defender in Nick Markakis' absence. They had discussed bringing him up from Triple-A Norfolk once rosters expanded on Sept. 1. He's currently in New York because the Orioles wanted him to stay close. Chavez batted .190/.222/.281 with five doubles, two home runs and eight RBIs in 47 games. He also went on the disabled list twice and was designated for assignment when the Orioles...

Yesterday was the first Nationals home game I've missed all season. Good thing I didn't miss anything. Oh, Stephen Strasburg was shut down, the Nats and Marlins played a game which finished nearly six hours after it was scheduled to begin, Jayson Werth hit a dramatic game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth and the Nats then won it in the bottom of the 10th? Yup, sounds about right. You step away for one day and everything goes nuts. Thanks to Pete Kerzel for filling in yesterday...