The Orioles held optional batting practice early this afternoon, the cage rolled onto the field and a pitching machine and hitting coach Don Long set up in front of the mound. A team with a roster weighted with established veterans might have attracted a small handful of participants. The Orioles had players coming in waves. The outfield was covered with pitchers willing to shag fly balls. Long worked up a heavy lather in the summer heat. "I don't see anybody not working in here," said...

In an alternate universe, Jon Lester would have deserved a better fate. The ground balls he induced would have found gloves rather than grass, his fielders wouldn't have betrayed him with clunky defense and he'd have been much more pitch-efficient. Instead, Lester endured a death by a thousand cuts Saturday afternoon, when the Giants both hammered and doinked him with regularity, his defense contributed to five unearned runs on two errors and the southpaw departed after just 2 2/3 innings...

When the call finally came from Major League Baseball on Saturday afternoon, inviting Max Scherzer to his eighth All-Star Game as a replacement player for a pitcher who was throwing Sunday or had to beg off with an injury, the Nationals ace reacted with the glee of a rookie rather than the carefully measured words of a grizzled 14-year veteran. "Just excited. Awesome. Anytime, it's a heck of an accomplishment," Scherzer said in a Zoom call with reporters before Saturday's game against the...

The Washington Nationals selected the contract of catcher Jakson Reetz from Triple-A Rochester and placed catcher Yan Gomes on the 10-day Injured List with an oblique strain Saturday. Additionally, the Nationals designated left-handed pitcher Kyle Lobstein for assignment. Nationals President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcements. Reetz, 25, joins the Nationals after hitting .215 with 12 doubles, two homers, eight RBI, 19 walks and 22 runs scored in 38...

The Orioles host the Chicago White Sox this afternoon in the next to last game before the All-Star break. The White Sox scored four runs in the sixth last night and added three each in the seventh and ninth to turn a 2-1 lead into a 12-1 rout in the series opener at Camden Yards. The Orioles (28-59) have lost by a combined 22-3 score the last two games. They have lost five of their last six games since completing a three-game sweep at Houston and are 5-7 over their past 12 games. They are 13-28...

Catcher Yan Gomes, who was removed in the second inning of Friday night's game against the Giants, is undergoing an MRI this afternoon and the Nationals will wait until the results of that diagnostic test to determine whether Gomes needs to be placed on the injured list, manager Davey Martinez said. "We have nothing yet," Martinez said in his pregame Zoom session with reporters. "He's getting an MRI as we speak, so hopefully he gets back here soon and we know something after the...

The list of participants in the All-Star Futures Game is published and eyes race to the American League catchers. There he is, Adley Rutschman, the top minor league prospect and the face, arm and bat of the Orioles rebuild. Right where he belongs. But double back to the pitchers. Rutschman isn't the lone representative in the organization. Far less heralded and totally unexpected is right-hander Marcos Diplán, who plays one level above Rutschman in the system and miles below the surface of...

The Orioles begin the penultimate game before the All-Star break this afternoon with DJ Stewart in left field, Domingo Leyba at second base and Kelvin Gutierrez at third. Austin Wynns is catching today, with Thomas Eshelman getting the start against the White Sox. Eshelman will try to complete the fifth inning for the first time in his five starts. He's allowed 13 runs and 23 hits in 16 1/3 innings. Lucas Giolito has a 4.20 ERA and 1.155 WHIP in 17 starts and has struck out 116 batters in 98...

Turns out Max Scherzer will get another star turn after all. The Nationals right-hander was selected as a replacement player for Tuesday's All-Star Game in Denver, Major League Baseball announced Saturday morning. Scherzer, who is 7-4 with a 2.66 ERA, 0.878 WHIP and 134 strikeouts in 98 innings, is an All-Star for the eighth time in his career. He has been chosen for the Midsummer Classic each season since 2013 He, Dodgers righty Walker Buehler, Brewers righty Freddy Peralta and Mets...

It might be easy to look at the recent body of work and be down on the Nationals entering the All-Star break: a four-game sweep at home at the hands of the Dodgers, a four-game series split with the Padres when winning three of four was right in their grasp, a loss in the first game against the Giants and a growing list of injuries. But looking at the greater body of work shows that the Nationals are carrying some real momentum into next week's pause: Over their last 30 games, they are 18-12,...