The Orioles have been reduced to playing spoilers again, which has become an unfortunate and unwanted September tradition in Baltimore. They've got two more games with the Tampa Bay Rays, who have muscled their way back into the wild card race and are putting serious heat on the Boston Red Sox. The Orioles have three games against the Los Angeles Angels to complete this homestand, then three games against the Red Sox and four against the Detroit Tigers on their final road trip before...

Rookie Zach Britton offered the following assessment of tonight's outing, when he allowed four runs and five hits in five innings while failing to win his 10th game of the season: Zach Britton talks about his outing in the Orioles' loss to Tampa Bay "I think I was just overthrowing today," he said. "The first couple innings weren't bad. They were OK. But right when I got out of the stretch, I started overthrowing, leaving balls up, out over the plate. That's a team I had success...

Zach Britton said he was overthrowing tonight, which could at least partially explain the 100 pitches he threw in five innings, along with the four runs, five hits and four walks in the Orioles' 5-2 loss to the Rays. "We talk about it almost every night, whether a guy has a good outing or a bad outing. It starts and stops with fastball command," manager Buck Showalter said. "That's one of the reasons Tampa is doing a good job with their starters. They have guys with good command of the...

The Single-A Potomac Nationals fell at Frederick 3-2 on Monday night, ending their defense of the Mills Cup.

FREDERICK, Md. - Jake Pettit pitched Frederick to a win in Game 1 of this playoff series and the lefty came up big tonight in Game 5 as well. Pettit gave up just three hits and one run over six innings, just as he did in game one, to pitch Frederick to a 3-2 win over Potomac in the fifth and deciding game of this Carolina League semi-final series. The Keys advance to face Kinston for the Mills Cup championship and will host the first two games of that best-of-five series on Tuesday and...

Zach Britton has thrown 69 pitches in three innings tonight. He'll need to become a little more economical with them. And real fast. Britton walked a batter in the first inning. He walked a batter in the second. He walked two more in the third, when the Rays scored three times to take a 3-0 lead. Britton also allowed three hits in the third - doubles by Brandon Guyer and Ben Zobrist, and a single to Sean Rodriguez. Guyer was leading off the inning as the Rays' No. 9 hitter. Zobrist's...

FREDERICK, Md. - The Frederick Keys have jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first inning of Game 5 of their playoff series with Potomac here at Harry Grove Stadium. After Dale Mollenhauer led off the last of the first with a foul out, Manny Machado followed that with a single to left. Batting fourth as the DH, Aaron Baker came up and hit a two-run homer to left on the first pitch from Paul Demny to lead 3-0. After Demny issued a two-out walk, he was lifted from the game and right-hander...

FREDERICK, Md. - As Frederick plays host to Potomac tonight in the deciding game of this series, it is the first Game 5 of a playoff series in Frederick since 1990, the first year the Keys played here at Harry Grove Stadium. Frederick defeated Kinston and Jim Thome 7-5 that night to win the Carolina League championship. A win tonight by the Keys and they return here tomorrow night to face Kinston again in a best-of-five series for the league championship. Keys manager Orlando Gomez had two...

Reliever Jason Berken came off the disabled list today after throwing a bullpen session Saturday at the minor league complex in Sarasota. Nick Delmonico, the Orioles' sixth-round draft pick out of Farragut High School in Tennessee, stopped by Camden Yards today and took early batting practice. He'll head to Sarasota tomorrow for the fall instructional league. Manager Buck Showalter was impressed with Delmonico, saying, "That's the way they're supposed to look." Brian Graham, the...

FREDERICK, Md. - After a summer of some uncertainty about the future of pro baseball in Frederick, the Keys are about to finalize a new 10-year lease to remain at Harry Grove Stadium through the 2021 season. For a while earlier this year, the independent Atlantic League tried to get a deal with the city of Frederick and, in effect, push the Keys out of town. But this franchise,which has been here since 1989, doesn't seem to be going anywhere. The Keys have always been an Orioles...