Adam Jones has dropped from fourth to fifth place among outfielders in voting for the American League's All-Star team. The Rangers' Nelson Cruz has passed him. The Blue Jays' Jose Bautista is third with 2,773,422 votes, followed by Cruz with 2,681,019 and Jones with 2,633,259. This is the final update provided by Major League Baseball before Sunday's selection show, which will air at 1 p.m. on TBS. Matt Wieters ranks third among catchers with 1,623,459 votes. The Rangers' Mike Napoli is...

Major League Baseball announced today via Twitter that the American League posted a 142-110 (.563) record in interleague play, winning the season series for the ninth consecutive year and 12th time in 16 years. The Orioles may want to switch leagues to avoid facing the Angels' C.J. Wilson and Jered Weaver the next two nights. A team with 17 runs in its last nine games will be severely challenged to get hot against those two arms. "They're trying to get it all back in one at-bat. It's...

Right-hander Cole Kimball continues to make his way back to the Nationals. The 26-year-old will start for the high Single-A Potomac Nationals tonight when they host Wilmington. Kimball, recovering from rotator cuff surgery last July, was 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA over 14 innings with the Nationals in 2011. He has appeared in two games so far at low Single-A Hagerstown and the Gulf Coast Nationals. During his rehab assignments, Kimball has gone two innings without allowing a run, with just two...

High Single-A Potomac right-hander Nathan Karns turned in another sterling performance Sunday for the P-Nats. Karns, with a career high 11 strikeouts in his longest outing of his career, worked eight innings in a 7-1 victory over the Wilmington Blue Rocks from Woodbridge, Va. The 24-year-old Karns (2-2) allowed only two hits and just one run in his fourth start with Potomac, dropping his ERA from 4.15 to 3.00 and making a case to win Carolina League Pitcher of the Week for the second...

Lost in the late-inning dramatics of yesterday's 2-1 loss to the Orioles might be the performance of Ross Detwiler, who worked five shutout innings before giving way to the bullpen. It was Detwiler's first start in nearly a month, and he battled through an inconsistent strike zone and some fatigue late in his outing to give the Nationals a strong effort. "I've got to tip my hat to Det. Det pitched a gutty ballgame," manager Davey Johnson said. "He went to his maximum pitches, he gave us...

The three contests played by the Orioles and Nationals this weekend were more like soccer matches, as fans watched for small shifts in momentum amid long scoreless stretches. Each team had their scoring chances, but it was the sudden, late scoring strike by Matt Wieters on Sunday that tilted the series toward Baltimore. What made it work for the Orioles, however, was how well their three best starters matched up well against the bottom three in the Nationals rotation in a series that was all...

I love how Orioles fans have raised the bar. There's utter panic in the streets because the Orioles' 63 errors are the most in the majors and their bats come with a frost warning. But I just checked the standings this morning and they're still in second place in the American League East. They trail the Yankees by 2 1/2 games. They're 10 games above .500. They're talking about being buyers at the non-waiver trade deadline. If you had told me back in March that I'd be typing the above...

Off-days are nice for a lot of reasons. For the Orioles today, it means resting Matt Wieters after he caught a day game after a night game and had a big day at the plate. It means a chance for the Birds to rest at home before beginning a tough series against some great pitching, including the arms of C.J. Wilson and Jered Weaver. It allows the 'pen, which has been called on often, a day to recuperate in some measure before having to face rookie sensation Mike Trout and some guy named Albert...

Some thoughts, notes and stats after a weekend of mid-Atlantic region hardball at Camden Yards: Good news for the Orioles: To me the biggest development of the weekend for the Orioles was seeing Jake Arrieta pitch a third straight good game. I know he gave up a grand slam in New York but the guy has otherwise been pretty rock solid over his last three outings. In those three, he has pitched 20 innings, allowing 18 hits and six earned runs with three walks to 18 strikeouts. Arrieta has a 2.70...

If you were wondering what allowed Ryan Zimmerman to finally look like Ryan Zimmerman today, there's an answer to that. For the first time in quite a while, Zimmerman wasn't playing with discomfort in his right shoulder. Before today's game, Zimmerman received a painkilling shot in the shoulder. It was a trial run of sorts. The Nationals were hoping to find something which would allow Zimmerman to continue playing but find some semblance of the offensive production that he typically...