Davey Johnson brought his sense of humor to today's pregame press conference. Asked why he thinks Edwin Jackson's been traded so many times in his career (the total is now at six), Johnson took the comical approach with his response. "I don't know; why have I been fired so many times?" he said. A few minutes later, Johnson mentioned that he doesn't normally view left-handers as being good athletes. Why's that? Davey Johnson talks about how the Nats' recent success has attracted...

Quickly, name the leader in saves for the Nationals after 15 games. Brad Lidge? Drew Storen? Tyler Clippard? Keep guessing. It is right-hander Henry Rodriguez, who showed how far he has come as a closer Friday night in a tough ninth inning matchup with the Miami Marlins. Battling the heart of a lethal Marlins order while holding a 2-0 lead, Rodriguez got a couple of key outs, but also walked two batters and uncorked a wild pitch. Last year, that might have rattled the young reliever to...

Whenever ESPN's Keith Law speaks, it seems, the Orioles fans listen. He got them stirred up when he criticized the team's signing of Vlad Guerrero before last year at a time when many fans were excited over the addition. But while Law now looked right with that opinion, he spoke again on the Orioles this week and I think he took a huge swing and a miss. The topic was pitcher Dylan Bundy, the Orioles' 2011 first-round draft pick. Bundy has pitched nine hitless and scoreless innings with 15...

I decided to start with the "bad" because I'd rather end this blog entry on a high note. The Orioles are facing Jered Weaver tonight. That's bad for them. He's 2-0 with a 2.18 ERA in three starts, with only two walks and 23 strikeouts. He hasn't allowed a run in two of those outings. Weaver is 15-5 with a 2.68 ERA lifetime in the month of April. Over the last three seasons, he's 10-0 with a 1.85 ERA. The last time I checked, it's still April. The Orioles continued to be dogged by...

As promised, Chad Tracy is in the Nationals lineup for this afternoon's game against the Marlins. And he's hitting cleanup. Raise your hand if you ever thought you'd see a Nationals lineup that had Chad Tracy in the four-hole. Tracy spells another left-handed first baseman, Adam LaRoche, who will get his first day off of the season. Here are your Nationals and Marlins lineups as Washington looks to lock up another series win: Nats SS Ian Desmond 2B Danny Espinosa 3B Ryan Zimmerman 1B...

If the Oriole Way is all about pitching and defense, the 2012 team is missing half of that equation. The Orioles committed three more errors tonight, and it would have been four if the official scorer hadn't removed one from catcher Matt Wieters and given Erick Aybar a single. Brian Matusz gave up six runs and nine hits in five innings but two of the runs were unearned. Who knows how much his outing would have changed without the two Robert Andino errors, or if first baseman Chris Davis had...

On a night when his teammates didn't support him much at times on both offense and defense, Brian Matusz gave up six runs to take another loss as the Los Angeles Angels beat the Orioles 6-3 in game one of a three-game series in Anaheim, Calif. Matusz allowed nine hits and four earned runs over five-plus innings as he falls to 0-3 with an ERA of 7.98. He is now 0-12 since his last win on June 6, 2011. The club record for consecutive losing decisions is 13 by Mike Boddicker over parts of the...

It's long been assumed that when Chien-Ming Wang returns from his hamstring injury, the fifth spot in the Nationals' rotation is his, and Ross Detwiler will move to the bullpen. Wang is a proven veteran who twice has won 19 games in a season, and the Nationals loved what they saw from the 32-year-old this spring prior to the injury he suffered during a Grapefruit League start on March 15. But with Detwiler throwing the heck out of the ball to start the season (I'm now borrowing one of...

Right-hander Tyler Clippard remembered an at-bat like the 14-pitch marathon he endured versus former Nationals infielder Emilio Bonifacio on Friday night. It wasn't last year or when he was starter with the Yankees in 2007. It was this season: the second game at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs. In the eighth inning on April 7, Clippard squared off against outfielder Reed Johnson. The 11-pitch battle ended with a foul tip strikeout to end the frame. On Friday, also in the eighth...

Davey Johnson pretty much summed up Rick Ankiel's impact on today's 2-0 Nationals win in one simple sentence. "He was basically our offense and our defense," the Nats' skipper said. Ankiel did it all tonight, hitting his first home run of the season, scoring both of the Nationals' runs, showing fantastic aggressiveness and intelligence on the basepaths, tracking down balls in the gap and letting his arm further intimidate baserunners. "It was a great game, outstanding game," Johnson...