-1745819772711.png){kind=logo}
Washington Nationals starter Jordan Zimmermann has been voted National League Pitcher of the Month for July, becoming the third different Nationals hurler to earn N.L. Pitcher of the Month honors this season, which is the most since 1979, when Houston Astros pitchers Ken Forsch (April), Joe Niekro (May), Joaquin Andujar (June) and J.R. Richard (September) all won monthly honors. This is Zimmermann's first monthly award.
In six July starts, Zimmermann led qualifying Major League pitchers with...
Less than three months after breaking his left wrist in a game against Cole Hamels and the Phillies, Jayson Werth is back in the Nationals' lineup and will start in center field against Hamels and the Phillies.
It all comes full circle.
Manager Davey Johnson announced minutes ago that Werth has been activated off the 60-day disabled list. Reliever Henry Rodriguez will land on the 15-day DL with a lower back injury, clearing space on the 25-man roster for Werth.
Werth, who has missed 75...
Nationals prospect Anthony Rendon had one of his best all-around games of his rehab stint Thursday, going 3-for-4 with three runs, two doubles and an RBI in short-season Single-A Auburn's 11-3 rout of the Staten Island Yankees.
Rendon played third base until there were two outs in the bottom of the seventh, replaced by Khayyan Norfork.
Rendon was hit by a pitch on his surgically repaired left ankle in Wednesday night's game, and left the contest early for precautionary reasons.
Despite...
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - It's time for the next leg of this two-city road trip.
I'm grateful to have made it out of LaGuardia Airport. I had reached a point where I intended to find a comfortable place in the security line to blog and tweet for the next four days.
Outfielder Nate McLouth isn't in Triple-A Norfolk's lineup tonight. He can opt out of his contract tomorrow and the Orioles want to keep him.
Could he be joining them in St. Pete?
While we've been kicking around ideas for...
Jayson Werth is in the clubhouse and it looks like he could be activated prior to tonight's game.
No move has been announced yet, but we're waiting on word. Werth could return in time to face his former team before the Phillies leave town tonight.
Update: Werth is currently shagging flies in center field during batting practice. Davey Johnson's pregame session with reporters has been pushed back at least 45 minutes and we're still waiting on a lineup for tonight.
Meanwhile, two...
Chris Tillman stepped to the mound in the bottom of the first inning after watching his counterpart, Ivan Nova, retire the Orioles on six pitches. Tillman proceeded to give up five runs, including a Robinson Cano two-run job, before the Orioles' seats were even warm. It appeared it would be another long night.
As the second inning started, Adam Jones and Matt Wieters both got on board with singles. Wilson Betemit and Lew Ford were set down by strikeouts and Nova quickly put two strikes on...
The Orioles' first-round draft pick, LSU pitcher Kevin Gausman, is expected to soon join the short-season Single-A Aberdeen IronBirds and will make his pro debut Monday.
Gausman will pitch three innings that night for Aberdeen at State College and is expected to make six starts of three innings each for the IronBirds from now through the end of their season on September 5.
Gausman will fly to Birmingham, Ala., tomorrow to undergo biomechanical testing and then he will leave Birmingham to...
These days, you rarely ever see a pitcher involved in a play at the plate when he's the guy barreling towards home trying to score.
Teams seem to go out of their way to protect their hurlers, and that generally includes avoiding situations in which the pitcher might be forced to lay a shoulder into a catcher or somehow end up contorting his body in an attempt to touch home plate safely.
That's why it was a little strange to see Nationals third base coach Bo Porter wave Edwin Jackson home...
A good team, a winning team, is made up of a couple types of players. These are stars and role players. The guys that play their roles will never get as much credit as the Ryan Zimmerman, Bryce Harper, Stephen Strasburg or Gio Gonzalez-type players, but they are equally important to any winning team, and at 62-41 that is what the Nationals are.
One of the more overlooked roles is long relief. These are the pitchers whose chief duty is to come into a game when it is getting out of hand and to...
It is a question that has dogged the Orioles organization for years and still does to this day: Why can't the Orioles develop young pitchers?
Among Jake Arrieta, Brian Matusz, Zach Britton and Chris Tillman, it seems Tillman is currently the most promising of the four - and he was at Triple-A for most of this year.
Arrieta is 26, but his ERA has gone from 4.66 in 2010 to 5.05 last year and now is 6.13. That is going the wrong way and Arrieta is now back at Triple-A. I remember how well he...