WASHINGTON - Manager Buck Showalter deflected a theory that his club might have shown signs of fatigue today in a 9-3 loss to the Nationals. He made more solid contact than his hitters. The Orioles are playing a stretch of 20 consecutive games, their next off day not coming until Thursday. But Showalter isn't pointing a finger at the schedule. "We scored three runs and could have scored a lot more," he said. "I think it was more that we made a lot of mistakes with our breaking ball today....

The Nationals were completely outplayed through the first two innings of today's game. Stephen Strasburg looked rattled, Washington had made multiple defensive miscues and yet again fell behind the Orioles, this time by a score of 3-0. Then the Nats flipped the switch, and they didn't look back. From the third inning on, the Nats outscored the O's 9-0, outhit them 11-2 and went on to earn a 9-3 win, perhaps unleashing some pent-up frustration after three straight losses, including two to...

WASHINGTON - The Orioles had four hits by the second inning. They still had four hits by the time the ninth inning rolled around. Adam Jones reached on an infield hit to open the ninth and Chris Davis singled with one out, but the damage was already done. The Nationals got out of a bases-loaded jam and avoided the sweep with a 9-3 win before 41,918 at Nationals Park. The offense shut down. Before Jones' single, the only baserunner after the second inning came on Luis Exposito's walk in the...

Not today for the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles were looking for a three-game sweep in the Battle of the Beltways and when they took an early 3-0 lead this afternoon against Stephen Strasburg, it looked within reach. But the Nats came back with nine unanswered runs to beat the Orioles 9-3 at Nats Park. Today's game drew 41,918 fans and the three-game series drew 120,929 fans. A victory would have given the O's a season-high six-game win streak and their first of six games since last...

No, that's not a typo. Stephen Strasburg has hit the first home run of his major league career. And boy, did Nats Park ever explode when the ball landed in the visitors bullpen in left-center field. Strasburg took an 0-2 curveball from Wei-Yin Chen and dropped the barrel to it, sending it out and bringing another near-capacity crowd to its feet. The 23-year-old hurler took a slow trot around the bases and entered a dugout filled with smiling teammates. After the crowd requested a curtain...

WASHINGTON - Wei-Yin Chen hasn't allowed more than three earned runs in any of his first seven major league starts. Chen gave up three earned runs in the third inning today at Nationals Park. The Nats almost hit for the cycle against Chen, getting a leadoff single by pitcher Stephen Strasburg, a double by slumping Danny Espinosa and a two-run triple by Bryce Harper on a ball that popped out of Nick Markakis' glove as he hit the ground on a diving attempt. Ian Desmond beat out a potential...

Safe to say this isn't how Stephen Strasburg and the Nationals wanted to open up their series finale against the Orioles as they try to avoid a sweep. The Nats trail 3-0 in the second inning after a rocky top of the first for Strasburg and an all-around sloppy performance by Washington in the second. Strasburg gave up three hard-hit balls in the first and frankly was lucky to escape having just allowed a single run. He gave up an RBI single to Nick Markakis to get the O's on the board, but...

Dylan Bundy retired the first 12 batters he faced today and pitched five shutout innings at Hagerstown this afternoon to keep his ERA at 0.00 now through 30 professional innings. Bundy was facing a pretty good hitting club today. Hagerstown, with a 23-16 record, began the day leading the South Atlantic League in homers, second in runs scored and fourth in batting average. Today, Bundy may even get his first win as a pro as Delmarva leads 3-0 after five frames. Hagerstown's J.P. Ramirez made...

WASHINGTON - The Orioles haven't faced Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg before today. I'm sure they've heard lots about him, watched a few starts on television, studied the video tape. They just haven't stood at the plate against him. The Nationals probably didn't know much about Xavier Avery before this weekend, but he's left an impression. Avery led off the top of the first inning with a single up the middle. He hustled to second base on J.J. Hardy's long fly ball to center...

Once again today I will post some stats, opinions and notes here in this entry during today's game as we feature a live blog this afternoon. I hope many of you add your own questions and comments today starting right now. Nats get the lead with the longball: The Nats got back-to-back homers with two outs in the fourth from Jesus Flores and Stephen Strasburg to take a 5-3 lead. Yes, the No. 8 and 9 hitters go deep off Chen for the lead. It's the Nats' first lead in this series. Flores'...