NEW YORK – Tony Mansolino issued an unintentional warning yesterday to opposing hitters. The Orioles’ interim manager was asked whether reliever Félix Bautista is resembling the pre-elbow surgery version of himself, the dominant All-Star closer from 2023. Is The Mountain at his peak? “I still think there’s another gear. I really do,” Mansolino said

LOS ANGELES – As bad as they looked over the last week against two of baseball’s least imposing opponents, the Nationals have had a weird knack for playing their best against the best. It sounds counterintuitive, but these guys have looked significantly better this year against the Dodgers than they have against the Marlins or Rockies. Having alrea

LOS ANGELES – The Nationals’ recent offensive struggles haven’t fallen on the shoulders of CJ Abrams. If anything, the shortstop and leadoff man has performed better as the team has performed worse as a whole. After a sluggish start to his month, Abrams has taken off in the last two weeks. He enters tonight’s game against the Dodgers batting .372 (

LOS ANGELES – The Nationals didn’t play poorly Friday night, but they needed to play just a little bit better if they wanted to beat the Dodgers. So that made the 6-5 loss in the series opener both encouraging and discouraging. They pretty much stood toe to toe with the defending champs but ultimately weren’t as good as the competition and lost a c

NEW YORK -  Less than 24 hours after plotting how to navigate the many bullpen restrictions in a regulation game, Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino stood in the visiting dugout at Yankee Stadium and watched Zach Eflin throw 30 pitches in the first inning. Only one run scored on Trent Grisham’s homer, but it’s become an exercise in this series

NEW YORK – Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman underwent an MRI this morning to determine the source of his left abdominal tightness. Maverick Handley is on the medical taxi squad and would be recalled if Rutschman goes on the injured list for the first time in his career. Rutschman missed two games this season after taking a hard foul ball off his mas

NEW YORK – The next update on All-Star voting is a few days away and Ryan O’Hearn should maintain his lead among designated hitters in the American League. Teammates are pulling for him, believing that he’s earned the honor and wanting him to be rewarded for grinding and persevering through the difficult times in his career. And they know that the

LOS ANGELES – The Nationals arrived here in good spirits late Thursday night, bolstered by a desperately needed, walk-off win to snap an 11-game losing streak. They didn’t know if that effort would carry over into the opener of a nine-game trip in which they’ll never leave Southern California, but if nothing else it did feel like a massive weight w

NEW YORK – The Orioles escaped the oppressive heat in Tampa, knowing that temperatures would rise in the Bronx for afternoon and late-morning starts this weekend and possibly touch triple digits Tuesday in Baltimore. A stretch of consecutive games in a row will reach 16 before Thursday’s off-day, and interim manager Tony Mansolino talked about scra

LOS ANGELES – Dylan Crews won’t be making his Dodger Stadium debut this weekend, and it’s probably killing him to have to come to grips with that fact. But the Nationals’ rookie outfielder is here with his teammates at Chavez Ravine, making his first road trip since he landed on the injured list one month ago and finally cleared to begin basic base