If the Orioles are to win a big series today against another wild card contender, they will have to beat Detroit's Doug Fister, a pitcher on a real roll. Fister is 7-7 with a 3.24 ERA through 18 starts this season. But over his last four games, he is 3-0 with a 1.15 ERA. In seven starts since the All-Star break, Fister is 5-1 with a 1.52 ERA and seven quality starts. In those seven games, he has given up one earned run or less five times with a batting average against of .199. He has a...

There's a monster storm heading towards Nationals Park, one which looks like it might play a factor both in what time the game begins and how long we're stuck here this afternoon. The Nationals and Mets have mutual off-days on Aug. 27 and Sept. 13, but with this being the Mets' last visit to D.C. this season, they'll do all they can to get this game in today, even if it means having everyone hang around for a while. Steve Lombardozzi will be hanging around for the first few innings...

Taylor Teagarden gets the start behind the plate today for the Orioles. Mark Reynolds and Manny Machado continue to handle the infield corners. Chris Davis moves up to fifth in the lineup. For the Orioles: Nick Markakis RF J.J. Hardy SS Nate McLouth LF Adam Jones CF Chris Davis DH Mark Reynolds 1B Manny Machado 3B Omar Quintanilla 2B Taylor Teagarden C Wei-Yin Chen LHP For the Tigers: Austin Jackson CF Omar Infante 2B Miguel Cabrera 3B Prince Fielder 1B Jhonny Peralta SS Delmon...

Davey Johnson had said he planned on giving both Ian Desmond and Jayson Werth the day off for today's rubber game against the Mets. That's not happening. Both Desmond and Werth are in today's Nationals lineup. I'd be interested to hear the reasoning for Johnson's change of heart. I have a hard time believing that last night's shutout loss to the Mets factored in at all, but it's possible Desmond and Werth both convinced their skipper that they're OK to play again this afternoon. The...

As the Orioles approached the 2012 season, I implored them to give Nolan Reimold and Chris Davis a minimum of 500 at-bats and determine whether they were legitimate major league hitters with a future in Baltimore. Play Reimold in left field. Keep Davis at first base. Figure it out. Reimold hasn't played since April 30 because of a herniated disc in his neck that required surgery. The jury is still out on him. Davis has become the regular designated hitter with Jim Thome on the disabled list...

Here is a question for you: Can a team create offense out of its defense? Sure it can - in basketball or football. You steal the ball and it leads to a slam dunk. You force a turnover setting up your offense on the opponent's 10-yard line. But in baseball? The Orioles may have done that in a way last night. The game was tied 0-0 and Detroit had a rally going in the last of the sixth. They got two on with none out. It looked like that Zach Britton had held the Tigers down for a while, but now...

When your pitcher goes out and dominates the opposition the way Edwin Jackson dominated the Mets tonight, you'd like to see that guy get rewarded with a win. That didn't happen, which will eat at the Nationals' hitters a little bit. "That's about as good as we've seen him," Adam LaRoche said of Jackson. "Sucks to waste it like that." Entering tonight's game, the Nationals had scored the most runs of any team in the majors since the All-Star break, so they won't hang their heads...

Earlier this season, Edwin Jackson pitched a complete game, allowing just one run. He then struck out eight and allowed just one run in eight innings against the Orioles in late June and threw seven shutout innings against the Brewers last month. But in Davey Johnson's mind, tonight was as good as Jackson has been all season. "That was probably the most dominant I've seen him pitch," Johnson said. "He had outstanding stuff. Breaking stuff, his fastball was dropping off the table and had...

The high Single-A Potomac Nationals used the longball to trip up Salem 7-4 on Saturday. Kevin Keyes, Steven Souza Jr. and Jason Martinson connected on homers for the P-Nats, who have erupted for 32 hits in the past two games. Shortstop Martinson continued to add to his milestone of 100 runs and 100 RBIs in the same season, split between low Single-A Hagerstown and Potomac. With the home run Saturday, he now has reached 101 runs and 103 RBIs. He also has 22 homers and 30 stolen bases in 122...

Zach Britton certainly proved the doubters wrong tonight. With many questioning Buck Showalter's decision to turn to him for tonight's start since he had struggled lately, Britton stepped up and gave the Orioles seven scoreless innings in a 3-2 win over Detroit. With the win, the Orioles tied a club record with their 12th consecutive win in one-run games. They had done this three times before, most recently from June 2 to July 8, 1979. Jim Johnson got the final three outs to record his...