Where do the Orioles go from here?
Hopefully, pretty far into the playoffs. After a wild card-clinching victory in game 162, the Orioles will face the Blue Jays tonight at 8 p.m. But that's not what I refer to when I pose that question. Rather, I want to focus on what comes after the playoffs: the free agent market. For the second consecutive offseason, multiple key contributors have the opportunity to leave Baltimore. Will the O's decide to bring them back? If so, how many of them and for...
Posting a .339 batting average with five doubles, two triples, eight home runs, eight walks, 18 RBI and 15 stolen bases in the final month of his rookie regular season, Nationals infielder/outfielder Trea Turner earned his second consecutive National League Rookie of the Month award. The honor, which comes on the heels of Turner taking home the award for August as well, was announced by Major League Baseball on Monday afternoon.
Turner finished the regular season hitting .342 with 14 doubles,...
Inspiration comes in many forms.
It came in the form of Hyun Soo Kim's bat in the ninth inning last Wednesday in Toronto, which lifted the Orioles to a 3-2 comeback win over the Blue Jays.
It came in the form of Kevin Gausman's right arm on Sunday, as the young pitcher brilliantly shut down the Yankees in a 5-2 win in the Bronx.
And it came in the form of 162 action-packed games, full of home runs, strikeouts, saves and game-winning hits over the past six months, each a crucial piece in the...
The Nationals are banged up as they enter the 2016 playoffs, with many of their top stars out or ailing for the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. But if they are going to give Washington a postseason series win for the first time since 1924, the Nats will still need a postseason hero to make it happen. Wilson Ramos is out for the whole postseason. Stephen Strasburg won't be pitching in at least the NLDS. Daniel Murphy is hobbled. Bryce Harper is still...
It's that time of year when Orioles fans look back on preseason projections and scoff at experts who predicted lots of losing in Baltimore. You might find yourself thinking, "Can you believe they actually wrote that?" as you recall that the Orioles were supposed to be a last-place bunch in the American League East this season. Then again, would you have believed what you were reading if those preseason predictions had actually been accurate?
Here's what a prescient write-up might have...
Pedro Severino caught Max Scherzer for the first time on Aug. 3rd in Arizona's Chase Field.
Scherzer talked after the outing, an eight-inning start in which he allowed four hits and three earned runs, striking out 11, about getting to know the 23-year-old rookie and getting comfortable with Severino behind the plate.
"It was great," Scherzer told reporters. "He did a great job behind the plate of getting me in rhythm and trying to get on the page with me and get some sequences right.
"When...
Manager: Joe Girardi (9th season)
Record: 83-76
Last 10 games: 6-4
Who to watch: C Gary Sanchez (.303/.378/.672 with 20 HR, 42 RBIs), SS Didi Gregorius (.275 with 20 HR, 69 RBIs), 2B Starlin Castro (.272 with 21 HR, 70 RBIs), RHP Masahiro Tanaka (14-4, 3.07 ERA), RHP Michael Pineda (6-11, 4.58 ERA)
Season series vs. Orioles: 8-8
Pitching probables:
Sept. 30: RHP Yovani Gallardo vs. RHP Michael Pineda, 7:05 p.m., MASNOct. 1: LHP Wade Miley vs. RHP Masahiro Tanaka, 4:05 p.m., MASNOct. 2: RHP...
You would have a hard time finding a more staunch supporter of Hyun Soo Kim than me. Sure, after his heroics last night, today is an easy day to write that I'm a fan of the guy, but I promise I can back it up. I wrote back in December of last year that I was excited about the Orioles signing Kim because it seemed like another one of those under-the-radar type impact moves from Dan Duquette. The Orioles needed a high-OBP bat to bring a bit more balance to the all-or-nothing nature of their...
Wilson Ramos is lost for the postseason, Stephen Strasburg will miss the series against the Dodgers, and Bryce Harper and Daniel Murphy are dealing with nagging injuries. To say the Nationals are entering the postseason not in their best shape is an understatement. In order to make a deep playoff run, the Nationals are going to need some guys to step up.
This isn't uncommon for the postseason and the Nationals have been on the receiving end of it. Joe Panik and Pete Kozma are far from...
In very unfortunate news for the player and team, Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos is out for the remainder of 2016 with a torn ACL. Ramos, 29, was having the best year of his career in 2016, which is his contract year. This season, he slashed .307/.354/.496 with 22 homers in 523 plate appearances and threw out 37.3 percent of attempted base stealers. It was beginning to look like Ramos would earn himself a big pay day in free agency, whether that money came from the Nationals or another club in...
The season-ending injury to Wilson Ramos is obviously a big blow to the Nationals. And with everything Ramos has gone through, especially after the season he was having, it's hard not to feel sad for him.
But the loss of one player, even one who was the team's second-best hitter this year, won't end the Nats chances. Ramos hasn't exactly been hitting well recently, with only a .764 OPS in the second half, but the team's production hasn't diminished - August was, in fact, their best month...
The Washington Nationals selected the contract of catcher Spencer Kieboom from Double-A Harrisburg on Tuesday. Nationals President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement.
Kieboom joins the Nationals for the first Major League assignment of his career. The 25-year-old is a career .264 hitter with a .344 on-base percentage and a .381 slugging percentage over the course of his five seasons in the Minor Leagues. This year, with Double-A Harrisburg, Kieboom hit...
The Nationals have been holding tryouts for the postseason roster, and last night, Dusty Baker made some calculated moves, some interesting moves and some moves out of necessity.
The moves out of necessity were to replace Bryce Harper and Daniel Murphy, as both are nursing injuries. Then Baker had to replace Wilson Ramos, who left the game with an apparent right knee injury. Baker went to Pedro Severino over Jose Lobaton in what Baker described after the game as "next man up." While you...
The Orioles bullpen has no shortage of underdog stories. Zach Britton washed out of the big league rotation before transforming into the sinkerballer extraordinaire he is today. Darren O'Day went undrafted out of college and bounced around several clubs until Baltimore snatched him up. And Mychal Givens started his minor league career as a shortstop, converting into a pitcher just three years ago. Brad Brach's journey is worth reflecting on, too: In eight years' time, he's gone from...
Manager: John Gibbons (9th season)
Record: 86-70
Last 10 games: 6-4
Who to watch: DH Edwin Encarnacion (42 HR, 126 RBIs); RF Jose Bautista (21 HR, 67 RBIs); 3B Josh Donaldson (.284 average with 36 HR, 96 RBIs); RHP Aaron Sanchez (13-2, 3.12 ERA); RHP Marcus Stroman (9-9, 4.34 ERA).
Season series vs. Orioles: 9-7
Pitching probables:
September 27: RHP Kevin Gausman vs. RHP Aaron Sanchez, 7:07 p.m., MASNSeptember 28: RHP Chris Tillman vs. LHP Francisco Liriano, 7:07 p.m., MASNSeptember 29: RHP...
The Nationals have returned home as National League East champions!
Before the team takes on the Diamondbacks, let's take a look back at Saturday night's party in Pittsburgh.
The Nats headed into Saturday's game with the magic number at two. Needing a win and a Mets loss, the Nats jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the fourth inning at PNC Park and didn't look back.
After wrapping up the win, the Nats retreated to the clubhouse, happy about the win but still needing a Mets loss to be able to pop...
If the injured, tired Washington Nationals were wondering where they might get that extra push for the postseason, they may have found it Sunday in Pittsburgh.
A day after clinching the National League East and celebrating late into the night, the Nats were clearly a weary team. They wrapped up a nine-game, 10-day road trip, and approached the end of the 162-game grind with Stephen Strasburg out indefinitely, Daniel Murphy's status uncertain, and Ryan Zimmerman hurting after being hit by a...
Fourth place. That's where I had the Orioles finishing this season. I wasn't alone. Many so-called experts pegged the O's for a fourth- or even fifth-place finish in the American League East. All five experts from CBS Sports had the O's in fifth. Five of six pundits from Yahoo! Sports slotted the O's in last as well, with the other picking them fourth. Bleacher Report had the Birds last, too. In a panel of 31 experts from ESPN, just two gave the O's a playoff spot, both slotting them as...
The Orioles are out of playoff position for the first time all season one week after an improbable division title seemed entirely possible following a Kevin Gausman gem at Fenway Park. An uplifting win that puts the postseason in reach has yielded to listless baseball. This all feels familiar, but worse. After all, we saw the same routine last season.
You'll recall that the 2015 O's were a half-game out of the American League wild card race and five games back in the division on Aug. 19...
In spite of their needs in the rotation, with Stephen Strasburg currently unavailable, the Nationals resisted the urge to rush 23-year-old righty Joe Ross back.
Dusty Baker was excited about the idea of adding Ross to the mix after he missed more than two months working his way back from right shoulder inflammation.
"I've heard guys around the league tell me that when he's right, he's as nasty as any young pitcher in the big leagues," Baker said last week before Ross pitched in the majors...