With the Nationals' victory over the Florida Marlins 3-2 Sunday, the Nats are 17-14 and won their 17th game of the season 33 days faster than last year's pace. The Nats did not secure the team's 17th win until June 11 last season and by then the Nats were close to 20 games out of first place. I caught up with Nats General Manager Mike Rizzo during the game and we reflected on the Nats great start and how he played it in spring training. He said he told the team to do three things this...

After pitching very well late last season for Frederick, right-handed reliever Brandon Cooney is using his plus 90's fastball and an amazing ground-ball ratio to put up numbers there again. Cooney, a 30th-round pick in 2007 out of Florida Atlantic, is 2-0, 0.60 with five saves for the Keys. Over 15 innings, the Keys closer has allowed 12 hits and just one earned run on the season, with seven walks to 18 strikeouts. "I feel really comfortable this year. I walked a few early, but I...

Scott Baker had an ERA of 5.35 and Nick Blackburn 5.79. But those two pitchers shut down the O's over the last 24 hours as the Orioles lost the last two games in Minnesota, scoring a total of one run on ten hits. Gary Thorne and Mike Flanagan discuss the O's 6-0 loss with Dave Trembley Today the final was Twins 6, O's 0 as Brian Matusz allowed six runs over 3 2/3. Blackburn had given up 21 hits over his last two starts and opponent hitters were batting .338 against him. But the O's...

Chris Tillman didn't throw another no-hitter - he's a tough act to follow - but he held Toledo to one run over seven innings in Triple-A Norfolk's 4-1 victory. Tillman allowed four hits, walked one and struck out 10 while improving to 3-3 with a 3.49 ERA. Is he knocking on the door? Tillman's last six outs came via strikeouts. He faced four batters over the minimum. Can you hear him knocking? Tillman is 3-0 with a 1.86 ERA, four walks and 24 strikeouts in his last four starts. Knock,...

Never make a guarantee at 1 a.m. And that includes anything involving baseball. Left-hander Brian Matusz gave up six runs and nine hits over 3 2/3 innings, falling well short of my prediction of seven innings and a victory. Good luck to Alfredo Simon if he's trying for a save in this one. Nick Blackburn held the Orioles to one hit through five scoreless innings, so Matusz needed to be perfect today. He wasn't up to the task. I'm not staying up late before making my next guarantee.

You can make stats do a lot of things and you can twist them a lot of ways. But if you look at the stats from the Orioles 9-22 start, here's a simple one that tells the biggest story of this season. O's record when scoring four or more: 7-4 O's record when scoring less than four: 2-18 Asking a Major League team to score four runs per game is not a lot, in fact an average offense scores more than that. No one feels the O's offense was great last year. But the 2009 Orioles averaged 4.6...

Orioles manager Dave Trembley confirmed today that reliever Jim Johnson will have his right elbow examined this week by Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala. Johnson told The Sun's Jeff Zrebiec that team orthopedist Dr. John Wilckens referred to the injury as a "strained ulnar collateral ligament." The Orioles are hoping that Andrews confirms that diagnosis and ligament-reconstructive surgery won't be necessary. Johnson pitched once for Triple-A Norfolk before going on the disabled...

For the fifth time since baseball returned to the nation's capital, Nationals players and coaches put on their tuxedos to raise money for the Washington Nationals Dream Foundation at the organization's annual gala. Held at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, the gala is the biggest fundraising event of the year for the foundation. "It really helps when they win because people are so much more enthusiastic about the team, so it's been nice," said Marla Lerner Tanenbaum,...

For the Orioles: Cesar Izturis SS Ty Wigginton 2B Nick Markakis RF Miguel Tejada 3B Matt Wieters C Luke Scott DH Adam Jones CF Garrett Atkins 1B Nolan Reimold LF Brian Matusz LHP For the Twins: Denard Span CF Nick Punto 3B Joe Mauer DH Justin Morneau 1B Michael Cuddyer RF Delmon Young LF Wilson Ramos C Brendan Harris SS Alexi Casilla 2B Nick Blackburn RHP

Rookie left-hander Brian Matusz has made four consecutive quality starts and leads AL rookies in strikeouts (31) and innings pitched (36.2), is third in wins (two) and fourth in ERA (3.93). Matusz has allowed just two extra-base hits to left-handed batters this year in 30 at-bats (homer and double by Robinson Cano on April 29). Opponents are batting .262 against him with eight extra-base hits (five doubles, a triple and two home runs). In his 14 major league starts, left-handed batters are...