WASHINGTON -- Davey Johnson isnt shaving his scruffy beard, even after the Washington Nationals finally put on the offensive show he was longing to see. Adam LaRoche homered twice and drove in four runs, and the Nationals barrelled past the Baltimore Orioles 9-3 Tuesday night. LaRoche, Tyler Moore and Roger Bernadina connected off Orioles rookie Kevin Gausman (0-2). LaRoche added a solo shot in the eighth off Troy Patton. It added up to Washingtons highest-scoring performance since a 10-3 win over Miami on April 15. The Nationals hadnt scored more than seven runs in 29 games since April 25. The 70-year-old Johnson began growing the beard last week and said he wouldnt shave until the Nationals broke out of their hitting slump. Now it appears he wont shave for fear of jinxing a team on a roll. "It was great," Johnson said of the hitting attack. "Some guys that usually take two or three strikes went up there and hit line drives." And then, fondling his grey beard, he added, "Maybe this is working." Addressing the suddenly hot topic of Johnsons beard, Moore said, "It looks pretty bad, doesnt it? I hope he looks like Santa at the end of the year if we keep winning." Washington built a 7-3 lead in the fourth inning for right-hander Nathan Karns in his major league debut. But Karns couldnt make it out of the fifth. Karns gave up three runs, five hits and two walks in 4 1-3 innings. He was alternatingly sharp and shaky, but decent enough to earn another chance. "Nathan Karns did good, so hes going to come back and pitch Sunday," Johnson said. "I thought he handled himself well. Good start against a good hitting ball club. I know he was nervous but I like the way he went after the hitters." Selected in the 12th round of the 2009 draft, Karns never before pitched above the Double-A level. The 25-year-old was 4-2 with a 4.60 ERA this season in nine starts for Harrisburg of the Eastern League. The start of the game -- and Karns big league debut -- was delayed by rain for 1 hour, 21 minutes. He didnt care. "The rain delay didnt bother me at all," the rookie said. "Now the first one is out of the way I can just build off of that." Zach Duke (1-1) followed Karns with 1 2-3 innings of perfect relief. Chris Davis hit his major-league leading 17th homer for the Orioles, and J.J. Hardy also went deep. But Baltimores franchise-record run of scoring at least five runs in 10 straight road games ended. After allowing four runs in five innings against Toronto last Thursday in his major league debut, the 22-year-old Gausman digressed in his second appearance. The right-hander gave up seven runs and eight hits in four innings with one walk and no strikeouts. Gausman, the No. 4 pick in the 2012 draft, is toting an unsightly 11.00 ERA and opponents are batting .385 against him. "Pitching in the big leagues is hard. Hes got the talent to do it and eventually he will," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "I look forward to it being next time out. He knows mistakes get magnified here. But its part of the process." Washington pulled away with a four-run fourth. LaRoche drew a leadoff walk, Moore hit his second homer in 81 at-bats this season, and Bernadina followed with his first long ball since Sept. 28. "After Bernadina and Moore went deep you want me to shave? I cant shave right now," Johnson said with a grin. With two outs, Denard Span added an RBI double to make it 7-3. Early on, with his fastball hitting 97 mph, Karns retired the side in order in the first inning on three groundouts. "I just wanted to get out there and throw strikes, work with getting the hitters out, and it worked out to my advantage," Karns said. Gausman, in contrast, struggled at the outset. After Span hit a scorching grounder that was gloved by Davis at first base and turned into an out, Steve Lombardozzi and Ryan Zimmerman both singled before LaRoche drove a 2-0 pitch into the centre-field seats. Baltimore closed to 3-1 in the second on an RBI double by Matt Wieters. But with one out and runners on the corners, Karns struck out Yamaico Navarro and Gausman. In the fourth, Davis lined a 1-2 pitch into the Washington bullpen beyond the right-field wall. Two batters later, Hardy homered to left into the Orioles bullpen to knot the score at 3. NOTES: The Nationals played a second straight game without OF Bryce Harper (knee), and Johnson acknowledged, "I probably was being optimistic thinking he could DH over in Baltimore (on Wednesday and Thursday). Its probably not looking good for that." ... Washington 2B Danny Espinosa, who has been sidelined since May 22 with a fractured bone in his right wrist, hopes to return Wednesday. "The strength is fine. Its just the stiffness," Espinosa said. ... The Nationals have homered in 73 straight series,, the longest active streak in the majors. ... Chris Tillman will take the mound for the Orioles on Wednesday night at Camden Yards against Washingtons Jordan Zimmermann, who is seeking his ninth victory. ... Baltimores Nick Markakis had his 12-game hitting streak snapped. Cheap Wholesale Ray Ban Sunglasses . Its sharpness matched my mind. This was no night to go to sleep. Cheap Ray Ban China . -- Stanford squashed Oregons national championship hopes again, schooling the Ducks in power football. http://www.cheapraybansale.com/ . Andrew Luck lost his favourite target and the Indianapolis locker room lost one of its most revered leaders when Reggie Wayne was diagnosed Monday with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee that will cost him the rest of the season. Cheap Ray Ban Sunglasses Sale . Deulofeu injured a muscle in his right leg in Evertons 4-1 win over Fulham in the English Premier League on Saturday. Barcelona says that its team doctors will "co-ordinate" with Evertons medical staff as Deulofeu recovers. Ray Ban Sunglasses Sale Cheap . Inter president Erick Thohir says in a club statement on Wednesday that Vidic is "one of the worlds best defenders and his qualities, international pedigree, and charisma will be an asset. The Seattle Mariners have suspended backup catcher Steve Clevenger without pay for the rest of the season a day after he sent racist tweets criticizing protesters in Charlotte, North Carolina; the Black Lives Matter movement; and President Barack Obama.In the tweets, which have since been deleted, Clevenger mocked the groups in Charlotte protesting the shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott, whom he called a thug, while referencing Colin Kaepernicks weekly demonstration to kneel during the national anthem to raise awareness of police brutality. He also called Black Lives Matter and Obama pathetic and said everyone involved should be locked behind bars like animals. (Clevenger has since released an apology.)So, can we stop calling Kaepernicks protests meaningless now??What Clevenger didnt realize is the extent to which he was proving Kaepernicks point -- and, perhaps more importantly, the extent to which he was proving Kaepernicks detractors wrong. Here you have a white player aggressively criticizing on-the-ground protesting by implying its too loud, while in the same breath criticizing a silent protest by a fellow athlete.In the weeks of debate over national anthem protests, much has been said about the seemingly no-win situation in which Kaepernick and others find themselves. When protests hit the streets, those inconvenienced by them admonish demonstrators for not undertaking more peaceful means. When peaceful protests occur on the field, players are told their gestures are distracting and ineffective.At the very least, we can debunk the ineffective part. Here we are, weeks later, still talking about the protests, which have grown across players, teams and leagues. The protests have spread from Kaepernick to Megan Rapinoe to entire NFL and WNBA teams. Theyve inspired Adam Jones to spark a conversation about race in baseball and the importance of white allies. Theyve led to quick, actionable consequences for a player tweeting incendiary things.Sure, Seattle is among the most liberal cities in the country, and Clevenger is a journeyman backup catcher who has barely managed a full seasons worth of total games in his six years in the majors. Hes not exactly Dan Wilson, and the Mariners didnt exactly have to sweat over this decision.Clevenger was quick to place Scott into thee thug category, while criticizing protesters for being too violent in the wake of a shooting of one civilian by another during the demonstrations.ddddddddddddut in the wake of the killings of Scott in Charlotte and Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Kaepernicks detractors have remained largely silent, save for the few like Clevenger doubling down on the narrative that black people getting gunned down in the streets must somehow deserve it -- and those choosing to speak up about it belong behind bars. That no matter their means, dissenting black voices will always be shouted down.Another somewhat troubling narrative has emerged in the hours since Clevengers suspension: that theres an inherent hypocrisy in supporting the free speech behind on-field protests of the national anthem while condemning a player for tweeting, even if people on both sides disagree with both messages. Thats a rational conversation we can have, but this instance isnt the place.People such as Justin Verlander and Kate Upton have the right to tweet misguided and poorly formed opinions on anthem protests. But when a player refers to black protesters as animals and calls for their mass incarceration, not to mention throwing our president in there, we should draw the line. We can debate where, exactly, that line should be and how it should be drawn. We cant debate that the line does exist. As ESPN the Magazines Mina Kimes put it, theres a difference between political commentary and hate speech. The blurring of that line only leads to more of the latter.So yes, the Mariners suspended a relatively meaningless player, for the relatively meaningless number of 10 remaining games, to the relatively meaningless tune of $34,000 pay. And yes, the Mariners probably decided that Clevengers statements construed conduct detrimental to the team from a PR perspective.?But the movement Kaepernick started, as an extension of Black Lives Matter, in reaction to an ongoing crisis with which scores of both players and fans across the major sports can identify, is what has finally begun to render hate speech detrimental. Hopefully this will continue to extend from speech, to attitude, to action. ' ' '
