NEW YORK – Look strictly at his numbers – 2.28 ERA, 1.141 WHIP, 4-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio – and you can’t help but think Paolo Espino must be among the Nationals’ primary bullpen options for high-leverage situations. And then you look at his individual games this season, and you realize every one of Espino’s 17 appearances to date has come wit

BOSTON – Félix Bautista is an exceptionally large man with a blazing fastball and a high walk rate in the minors. That was pretty much the scouting report when Bautista reported to spring training as a new addition to the Orioles’ 40-man roster. A bubble guy who made it based on his plus velocity and strikeout rate. An arm that the Orioles didn’t w

NEW YORK – The Nationals sent Erick Fedde to the mound at Citi Field tonight, first and foremost, in an attempt to win their series opener against the Mets. They also sent Fedde out there, second and furthermore, in an attempt to get enough innings from their starter to help set the stage for the rest of the series, knowing they need somebody to ma

BOSTON – The Orioles got loud in the first inning tonight against a soft-tossing left-hander who gave up nothing against them in an earlier game. Rich Hill was down a couple runs just three batters into his start. The outs also made noise. There was no hangover for the Orioles after the previous day’s lopsided defeat. Hangovers and loud noises don’

NEW YORK – Watching Kyle Finnegan labor through the top of the eighth Sunday afternoon at Nationals Park, Davey Martinez felt like something didn’t look right with the Nats reliever. The results certainly weren’t up to Finnegan’s standards: He retired only one of the five batters he faced, allowing three singles and a double, letting two Rockies ru

The Orioles wrap up a two-city, eight-game road trip tonight at Boston, playing the fifth and final game of their series at Fenway Park. The winner of tonight’s game wins the series, which is tied at two wins each. O’s pitching allowed five doubles and five homers Sunday as the Red Sox rolled to a 12-2 win – the Orioles' most lopsided loss of the s

BOSTON – The Orioles are waiting until Tuesday morning to announce their starter for the series opener against the Mariners at Camden Yards. Kyle Bradish starts Wednesday, followed by Jordan Lyles on Thursday in his 300th career game. A pitcher could come up from Triple-A Norfolk or manager Brandon Hyde goes with another bullpen game to piece toget

NEW YORK – The Nationals have won four of their last five. As such, they’ve improved to 18-31 on the season. Which means if they win tonight’s series opener against the Mets, they’ll be 19-31. And we all know what that means. OK, so it probably wouldn’t mean what it meant three years ago when the Nats got swept in this very ballpark to fall to 19-3

BOSTON – The Orioles still can claim the five-game series against the Red Sox with a victory tonight that concludes their homestand. The teams have split the first four games, with the Red Sox cruising yesterday to a 12-2 win. “We just need to let this one go,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “We’ve been playing good baseball, we’ve played competitively

Stephen Strasburg was already in the home clubhouse at Nationals Park by the time Sunday’s 6-5 victory over the Rockies was completed, the traffic on northbound Interstate-95 apparently not nearly as awful as you’d typically expect it to be on a holiday weekend. While the Nats were hanging on to beat Colorado and earn their first home series win of