After starting his major league career by going 0-for-2, Bryce Harper found his way into the hit column. And he did it in style. Up with two outs in the seventh inning, Harper smoked a 3-2 belt-high fastball from Chad Billingsley to straight-away center field. The ball was hit so hard that, despite the fact it looked like it barely got more than 25-30 feet off the ground, it traveled all the way to the base of the wall in center. Harper sprinted around first, and as he approached second,...

After he had driven in four runs in the Orioles' 10-1 win over Oakland and homered for the third time in his last four games, first baseman Chris Davis said getting regular playing time has been a key to his good start for the club. "It means a lot. I don't remember if it was 'Baseball Tonight' or 'SportsCenter,' but I heard some of the guys who have played talk about how big it is to know mentally that you are going to be in there every day," Davis said. "To know that they have...

Here's a sampling of manager Buck Showalter's comments following tonight's 10-1 rout of the Oakland Athletics before 26,926 at Camden Yards: On the second-inning baserunning: "It's one thing to be aggressive, it's another thing to be kind of smart. The situation presented itself. Push the envelope a little bit. There were a lot of good at-bats there. Ronny (Paulino) stayed inside a ball. If nothing else, he's going to get the runner over and the run in. Same way with (Ryan) Flaherty....

There would be no 500-foot home run, no legendary welcome-to-the-big-leagues moment which people will be talking about for decades to come. Bryce Harper's first major league at-bat ended in a slow ground ball back to Dodgers pitcher Chad Billingsley, who tossed to first to nab a sprinting Harper by a step. That's it. The kid's a bust. Get rid of him. Harper will smash many homers in his career, but when he came to the plate in the second inning with baseball fans across the country tuning...

It was a matchup of a team that has been struggling to score runs against the club with the best ERA in the league. But the Orioles reversed course tonight and scored 10 runs on 14 hits to beat Oakland 10-1 and even this three-game series. The A's began the night with a 2.68 team ERA that was tops in the American League and was even better at 1.99 over the A's previous nine games. The Orioles offense finally broke out after scoring just 30 total runs on a .216 team average over the past ten...

I would have guessed I-95. Chris Davis hit an absolute bomb down the right field line in the bottom of the seventh inning, the ball easily clearing the flag court and bouncing on Eutaw St. to increase the Orioles' lead to 10-1. Davis, who connected off former Orioles reliever Jim Miller, is 3-for-4 with four RBIs and two runs scored. He's batting .313. That's the 59th ball to land on Eutaw St., and the 25th time that an Orioles player has put it there. Davis hadn't done it before...

I can't blame anyone if Chien-Ming Wang isn't exactly the top Nationals player in on their mind tonight. But while Bryce Harper was getting set to debut at the major league level a couple hours ago, Wang was making his 2012 debut on the minor league level. Pitching for Single-A Potomac in his first rehab start since suffering a left hamstring injury March 15, Wang went four innings against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, allowing just one run on four hits. Wang walked none and struck out...

It's football weather here at Camden Yards, but the Orioles played inspired baseball in the second inning. They sent nine batters to the plate. They collected six hits. They kept taking extra bases. And they scored five runs to build a nice lead for Taiwanese left-hander Wei-Yin Chen. Adam Jones, Wilson Betemit, Chris Davis and Ronny Paulino strung together singles before Oakland starter Tyson Ross recorded his first out. Davis' single brought home one run. Paulino's delivered two...

Frank Robinson had a busy afternoon at Camden Yards. Between the unveiling of his statue in left-center field today and before an on-field ceremony before tonight's game he spent some time at a press conference and talked about today's honor. "Since this is going to be a lifetime thing as far as the statue is concerned, it ranks right up there with the Hall of Fame," Robinson said. "It is a tremendous honor, it's something you don't think about and when you hear about it and that they...

Bryce Harper, the 2010 No. 1 pick, will make his major league debut. Stephen Strasburg, the 2009 No. 1 pick, will be on the mound. Matt Kemp, who leads the universe in hitting with a .452 average and 10 home runs, will hit third for Los Angeles. The Nationals and Dodgers are both in first place in their respective divisions. Is this just about as exciting as an April baseball game can get, or what? The eyes of a large part of the baseball world will be on the Nats-Dodgers game tonight, as...