It was a wacky night in the nation's capital. We had four errors (one of which scored a run), another Nationals catcher leave with an injury, a phenom hit his first major league home run, a journeyman hit a big pinch-hit homer and a total of 13 runs score in a game played between two of the worst offensive teams in baseball. In the end, the Nats escaped with an 8-5 win, with Sean Burnett bailing out Henry Rodriguez to earn the save. It wasn't easy, though. Rodriguez walked the bases loaded...

High Single-A Potomac Nationals third baseman

Xavier Avery hit his first major league triple in the fifth inning. Avery drove in his first major league run with that triple. Avery collected his first major league hit that tied a game. A night of firsts continues for the former second-round draft pick. The Orioles trailed 3-2 after Curtis Granderson homered onto Eutaw St. in the top of the fifth. Robert Andino led off the bottom half with a walk, and Avery followed with his triple into the right-field corner. He's halfway to his first...

A cool moment - Bryce Harper's first major league home run - is quickly trumped by a sad one. Nationals catcher Sandy Leon, making his major league debut tonight, was run into by Padres third baseman Chase Headley as Headley was trying to score from second on a fourth-inning single to right-center. Leon's right leg got bent back, and he was clearly in pain after Headley touched home to make it a 4-3 game. It was a clean play by Headley, as Leon was blocking almost the entire plate, but the...

For the first time in his pro career,

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...