Several interesting discussions about the National League Cy Young Award broke out Thursday among some Facebook friends, as Mets fans congratulated RA Dickey on winning his 20th game of the season. Posters and commenters began comparing Dickey and Gio Gonzalez, the only other 20-game winner in the majors this season, and speculating on which pitcher would win. So who does deserve to win the award as the league's top pitcher, Gonzalez or Dickey? Gonzalez won his 21st game Thursday night by...

The Orioles' rotation is a constant guessing game. Unlike the burger joint, you won't find Five Guys. Pitchers don't always work on normal rest. The MVO might be TBA. Chris Tillman gets the ball tonight against the Boston Red Sox in the first game of the final homestand of the regular season. Rookie Steve Johnson will start on Saturday before a sellout crowd. Sunday is undecided, with left-hander Joe Saunders a possibility. Tillman faced the Red Sox in his last start on Sunday and held...

PHILADELPHIA - Three down, three to go. The Nationals are half-way through their final road trip of the season, and after a few days in Philly, it's off to St. Louis for three games against a Cardinals team trying to lock up the NL's final Wild Card spot. The earliest the Nationals can now clinch the division is Saturday. You won't find anyone in the clubhouse looking past tonight's game, but after what the Nats accomplished in Philadelphia, they've set themselves up to close this thing...

The Nationals certainly showed they are the better team after taking two of three against the Phillies, winning the series finale, 7-3. Some of the headlines include Gio Gonzalez winning his career-high 21st game and Bryce Harper hitting his 21st homer. But how about the two home runs from Michael Morse and four RBIs? The second home run was a mammoth shot, travelling 451 feet and landing in Tom Gorzelanny's hat in the second level where the visitor's bullpen is situated in Citizens Bank...

PHILADELPHIA - The play of tonight's game, in the eyes of the Nationals' relievers, at least, was not Danny Espinosa's over-the-shoulder sliding catch of a John Mayberry pop up, Ryan Zimmerman's running, off-balance throw to get Chase Utley in the fifth or Michael Morse's laser beam home run in the sixth. It was actually Tom Gorzelanny's catch of Morse's second home run of the night, which landed in the Nationals' bullpen. Gorzelanny saw the ball coming down into the bullpen, took off...

It seems pretty clear to me that Matt Wieters, Jim Johnson and Adam Jones are the top three candidates for this year's Most Valuable Oriole award. It also seems clear to me that a very solid case could be made for any of the three to win the award. But when I turned in my ballot this week I voted this way: 1st - Jones 2nd - Johnson 3rd - Wieters The argument that Johnson has been one of the game's best closers, anchoring one of the game's best bullpens, which is the strongest part of the...

PHILADELPHIA - The Nationals aren't getting any help from the Braves lately. Atlanta just keeps on rolling, winning 10 of their last 12. So the guys in the Nationals' clubhouse are taking the mentality that they'll just have to go ahead and clinch the NL East title without any help from the team nipping on their heels. "I know if we win three more, we're in, we win the pennant," manager Davey Johnson said. "That's all I want everybody in that room to figure on." The magic number was...

PHILADELPHIA - I'm guessing that Michael Morse's injured hand and wrist are feeling just fine tonight. Morse already has two home runs and four RBIs through three at-bats, helping the Nationals to a 6-3 lead over the Phillies. The first Morse home run was in the air for about 78 years before finally coming down just barely over the left field fence. It was an absolute rainmaker, giving Morse his 15th homer of the season. The second Morse longball was just demolished out to center. Morse...

PHILADELPHIA - Bo Porter was already a Houston resident. Now, after the Nationals' season ends, he'll skipper the city's baseball team, as well. Porter was announced this morning as the next manager of the Houston Astros, which will be the 40-year-old's first big league managerial gig. After a college football career at Iowa, a stint in the major leagues as a player, two years of service as a minor league coach and manager and five years as a base coach or bench coach for three different...

It's usually a morning blog entry, but I'm feeling a little bold as the sun goes down. I found a few leftovers that might be of interest, including this first item from Elias: Last night, the Orioles hit home runs with men on base in the fifth inning (Chris Davis), sixth (Mark Reynolds), seventh (Davis again) and eighth (Manny Machado) in their 12-2 win over the Blue Jays at Camden Yards. According to Elias, it's the the first time in more than six years that a team hit home runs with men...