MASN, the television home of the Washington Nationals, will televise Stephen Strasburg's Triple-A debut on Friday, May 7th at 10:30 p.m. on tape delay immediately following Nats Xtra. The game will be carried on MASN and MASN HD. Strasburg and the Syracuse Chiefs will host the Gwinnett Braves at Alliance Bank Stadium at 7:00 p.m. The first-overall selection in the 2009 First-Year Player Draft, Strasburg went 3-1 with a 1.64 ERA in five starts with Harrisburg of the Double-A Eastern League....

One of the O's top pitching prospects, lefty Zach Britton, got quite a scare today pitching for Bowie at Harrisburg in a game that began at 10:35 this morning. Britton took a two-hit shutout to the bottom of the fifth when the first batter hit a liner back toward the mound. "It hit me right in the (left) shoulder and dropped right in front of me. I was able to pick up the ball and throw him out at first," Britton said. "Right now it's tight, but no pain or anything, just a little...

For the Orioles: Adam Jones CF Nick Markakis RF Matt Wieters C Miguel Tejada 3B Ty Wigginton 2B Luke Scott LF Garrett Atkins DH Rhyne Hughes 1B Cesar Izturis SS Brian Matusz LHP For the Yankees: Derek Jeter DH Nick Swisher RF Mark Teixeira 1B Alex Rodriguez 3B Robinson Cano 2B Marcus Thames LF Brett Gardner CF Francisco Cervelli C Ramiro Pena SS A.J. Burnett RHP Cano is the only left-handed batter to record an extra-base hit off Matusz in 25 at-bats this year (homer and double April 29 in...

With the team announcement that Nationals number one overall selection Stephen Strasburg is moving on to the Syracuse Chiefs, I project the possible May starts for #37, and if all goes well, his first major league baseball start would be in early June for the home series against the Cincinnati Reds. Jim Callis, Executive Editor of Baseball America told me it makes sense for the Nats to have Strasburg in Harrisburg for a month, Syracuse for a month, then bring him up for 100 innings before...

The Nats are home for a short homestand against NL East opponents this week. Of course, today is T-Shirt Tuesday, so get to the park early. On Friday, Miller Lite will give away coolers to the first 10,000 adult fans. It will also be the team's first Tweetup of the season. Join Twitter friends at the Miller Lite Scoreboard Walk for just $14: www.nationals.com/tweetup. The popular Pups in the Park promotion returns on Saturday afternoon, welcoming four-legged Nationals fans to come cheer...

Every day now we are getting a variation of the same question from our readers that Baltimore sports talk-show hosts are getting from callers to their shows. How much longer can the Orioles go with Luke Scott? I don't know what answer we can be expected to give. What if we said 50 at bats, but not 75. Or 100 at bats, but not 150.' Scott is a streak hitter in a bad streak. He did hit 25 homers last year with a better slugging percentage and OPS than Nick Markakis, Adam Jones and Brian...

Left-hander Zach Britton tossed five scoreless innings today in Double-A Bowie's 9-0 win over Harrisburg. Britton allowed two hits, didn't walk a batter and struck out two while improving his record to 2-2 with a 3.60 ERA. Unfortunately, he was hit in the chest by a comebacker on his third pitch of the fifth inning and eventually left the game. I doubt that it's serious or he would have come out immediately, but I might have an update later. Former starter Pedro Beato followed Britton to...

Triple-A Norfolk pitcher Jake Arrieta has logged two scoreless innings today against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, allowing one hit and one walk, striking out one and hitting a batter. Arrieta has thrown 30 pitches, 17 for strikes. That's pretty busy for a guy who hasn't given up a run. Arrieta is coming off his worst outing, though he's raised the bar this season. He was charged with three earned runs (four total) and five hits in six innings, with four walks and four strikeouts. He had...

I wanted to re-visit a story today that I wrote back on Sunday. I think some people saw it but it got lost a bit in the shuffle on a day the O's won to sweep the Red Sox. It is about the possibility of the Orioles bringing one of their top pitching prospects, like Jake Arrieta, to the Majors and using him in relief. Here is the story. Please understand: I think the chances that Arrieta comes here to work out of the pen are a longshot. But I asked Dave Trembley if the Orioles have even...

In class, we've focused on past tense phrases and verbs for the past few weeks so we weren't able to choose our own (baseball-themed) words. But, here is this week's set of words. Yeah, I'm being a little bit glass half full, but you have to enjoy it while it lasts! wildcard: comodín win: ganado, triunfo to win: ganar, triunfar winner: ganador to shut out: blanquear a shut out: argollada, blanqueada, lechada no hitter: juego sin hits grand slam: ...