The Washington Nationals' $126 million man, Jayson Werth, returned to the place where he made his name Tuesday night: Citizen's Bank Park in Philadelphia. He was the center focus of the festivities all evening long in the Nationals' 4-1 loss to the Phillies, even though he had very little to do with the action on the field, as he went 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout. He was received surprisingly warmly in his first at-bat, pausing to tip his batting helmet to acknowledge the appreciation...

When the Orioles traded for Adam Jones in the winter of 2007, he was considered by many to be a future star. His potential to be a power-hitting center fielder with above-average defensive skills had Orioles fans drooling, but he hadn't put it all together up to this season and the frustration level among fans was raised to a critical level. Since the beginning of this season, it's been obvious that Jones has worked hard on his defense. He is consistently making plays both shallow and deep...

Whenever you lose by one run, you can often point to a lot of things that went wrong. Tuesday night in Kansas City, a lot of things went wrong. Brad Bergesen pitched a scoreless first, but got rocked during a three-run second. He can't seem to find any consistency right now. Derrek Lee made a baserunning blunder. In the fourth he hit a bloop single to right. But, with the Orioles behind 3-0, he tried to stretch that into a double on right fielder Jeff Francoeur and he was thrown out. Lee...

It's happening so quietly, it's barely making a sound. Imagine a mouse wearing fuzzy slippers, or a cloud wearing ... fuzzy slippers. OK, that's probably not working for you. Derrek Lee has raised his average from .209 to .255 in his last 11 games. He's got 15 hits during that stretch, and five multi-hit games in his last 10. Has anyone noticed? Perhaps it would be more obvious if baseballs were crashing into the bleachers. Lee went 2-for-5 last night in the Orioles' 6-5, 10-inning...

Before tonight, the Orioles' starting pitchers had posted a 3.43 ERA over their last 13 games, working at least six innings in 11 of those 13. They made nine quality starts in that period and had gone five innings or more in 17 consecutive games. The bullpen, however was 1-2 with a 6.86 ERA over the last 13 games. Brad Bergesen left tonight's game after five innings with a 5-4 lead. Jeremy Accardo replaced him and served up a leadoff homer to Jeff Francoeur. Bergesen was charged with three...

Luke Scott tied tonight's game, 3-3, with a three-run homer off Kansas City's Jeff Francis in the top of the fourth inning. Scott has six homers in his last 14 games, and four homers and nine RBIs in his last six. Yes, he can be streaky. Scott has two hits in 17 at-bats against left-handers this season - both home runs. Matt Wieters threw out another runner trying to steal and blocked the plate again while tagging out another runner. It's become routine. Update: A one-out error by Cesar...

With the Major League Baseball season being a 162-game marathon, every team strives to maintain consistency which hopefully leads first to being competitive and then to being a contender. And with consistency the goal, every team also has the same approach: Win as many series over the course of the six-month season as possible. Managers for all 30 major league teams follow the edict, "Let's take two-out-of-three and move on." Take a look at the starts to the last two seasons, and it's...

Here is a pretty surprising stat. The four hitters batting second through fifth for the Orioles tonight - Nick Markakis, Derrek Lee, Vladimir Guerrero and Mark Reynolds - are a combined 21-for-41 in their careers at gametime against Jeff Francis, who is starting for the Royals tonight. The rundown: Markakis is 2-for-3 with a homer Lee is 7-for-12 with a homer Vlad is 3-for-4 with two doubles Reynolds is 9-for-22 with two doubles So, of course, that foursome went 0-for-4 the first time...

Orioles pitcher Brian Matusz, on the disabled list with a strained left intercostal muscle, will follow up Sunday's bullpen session by throwing 30 pitches on the side tomorrow and 20 more against hitters at Twins Lakes Park in Sarasota. Matusz is still scheduled to pitch in an extended spring training game on Saturday before beginning his injury rehab assignment in the minors. The Orioles want him to make at least three starts before activating him. It's hard to believe we haven't seen him...

Cleveland Indians outfielder Shin-Soo Choo became the sixth major league player charged with a DUI this season. Good thing he wasn't tweeting or he might be facing a suspension. Here's the Orioles' lineup for tonight's game in Kansas City, which includes Nick Markakis one night after he hurt his right knee and right hand, but does not include Brian Roberts: Update: The Sun's Jeff Zrebiec tweets that Roberts had root canal surgery this morning and could be available off the bench...