The kid is in the home run column. It took Bryce Harper 15 games, but with no one on and two outs in the bottom of the third inning tonight, he smacked his first career major league homer to dead-center field, the ball rolling about a quarter of the way up the batter's eye. The home run came on a 2-1 pitch from Padres righty Tim Stauffer and gave the Nationals a 4-1 lead. Harper motored around the bases in a hurry and returned to smiles and high fives in the Nationals' dugout. The sparse...

Xavier Avery is batting first again tonight after making his major league debut on Sunday. Avery picked up his first major league hit with a double to center field off Yankees starter Ivan Nova. Avery scored his first major league run on J.J. Hardy's single up the middle. Maybe this will be the night that Avery hits his first major league home run or steals his first base or hits for his first cycle. OK, baby steps. Here's hoping he doesn't pull his first groin muscle in the majors or...

Even after going eight strong innings for Triple-A Syracuse in a rehab start earlier today, Chien-Ming Wang will not rejoin the Nationals just yet. Manager Davey Johnson said that Wang will make at least one more rehab outing before the Nats decide to activate him and have him join their rotation. "He should for sure get one more start down there, and then we'll go from there," Johnson said. Wang, who suffered a left hamstring injury during a spring training start on March 15, is allowed...

I've got a ton of injury updates to pass along today, so I'll jump right into it. According to manager Davey Johnson, left fielder Michael Morse threw from about 50-60 feet without any problem today, and Morse said he plans to take some dry swings tomorrow, meaning he won't actually make contact with a ball. If Morse keeps progressing in his rehab from a strained left lat, the plan is for him to go on a rehab assignment and then rejoin the Nationals when they open interleague play on June...

As I've written over the past few days, outfielder Nolan Reimold won't be ready to come off the disabled list when he's eligible on Wednesday. He's not even ready to go on an injury-rehab assignment. Right now, he's waiting to be re-examined by a team physician and to find out whether he needs a second epidural injection to alleviate the discomfort caused by a herniated disk in his cervical spine. Catcher Taylor Teagarden received three injections for his lower back, so Reimold has some...

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Nationals catcher Sandy Leon was all-smiles as he got dressed Monday in front of his locker, located between fellow Venezuelan receivers Wilson Ramos and Jesus Flores. Leon got the call to the big leagues from Double-A Harrisburg after an unfortunate right knee injury to Ramos, who may miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL. Leon was not selected because he was closer geographically to where the Nationals were playing the Reds in Cincinnati, Ohio, when the injury to Ramos occurred....

Given the two blown saves Henry Rodriguez has put up over his last four outings and the spectacular manner in which the Nationals' closer has lost those games, manager Davey Johnson has been asked whether Rodriguez will continue to get the ball in save situations. He got that question after yesterday's 9-6 loss, in which Rodriguez allowed a walk-off grand slam to Joey Votto, and stated that he'll stick with the 25-year-old righty. Today, Johnson was asked whether he thinks Rodriguez's...

The last time the Orioles faced Yankee right-hander Ivan Nova they beat him and that was significant. It was Nova's only loss over his last 22 starts dating to last June 3. Tonight they face Nova in Game 1 of this brief two-game series at Camden Yards. When Nova took the mound May 2 at Yankee Stadium against the Orioles he had gone 15-0 with an ERA of 3.61 over his previous 20 starts. He took the loss that night to end his winning streak, giving up five runs and nine hits over 6 1/3. Nova...

Xavier Avery has played a lot of baseball games in his young career and has not been nervous during many of them. But he admits that he was Sunday when he made his major league debut, going 0-for-4 in the leadoff spot while playing left field against Tampa Bay. "It was great in that I got my feet wet. But I was nervous for about the first five innings, mostly on defense. Offensively, I was OK swinging the bat. But you don't want to mess up on the defensive side. Swinging the bat, I felt good...