A lull in the offense and some minor league news and notes

Last night's 13-0 blowout loss to Toronto was the seventh time this year the Orioles were shut out. They were blanked four times before the All-Star break and now three times in the second half. For a while there, the Orioles' bats seemed to be picking up, but now the club has been held to three runs or less in four of its last five games. In those five games, the Orioles have scored 13 total runs with a team batting average of .215 and an average with runners in scoring position of just .176 at 6-for-34. A couple of hitters have struggled in recent games. Robert Andino is 2-for-17 over his last five games. Adam Jones is just 2-for-26 over his past eight games as his average has dropped from .299 to .288. Nolan Reimold is 3-for-16 and Nick Markakis is 4-for-31 without an RBI over his last nine games. With Richmond's win and Double-A Bowie's loss last night, the Baysox have dropped into third place in their division in the Eastern League, a half-game back of Richmond. The two top clubs make the playoffs. Bowie has now scored just three runs over its last three games and is 72-64 on the year with 12 losses over the last 17 games. Last night, starter Tim Bascom gave up just two runs over seven innings with a career-high 10 strikeouts. Right-hander Oliver Drake (2-5, 5.71) will try to pitch Bowie to a win at home tonight as the Baysox continue their run for a playoff berth. The Orioles Dominican Summer League team will not win a championship this year. After winning playoff series over the DSL Brewers and Royals, the Orioles were swept three straight for the championship by the Angels. They lost by scores of 2-0, 4-3 and yesterday 5-1. The Orioles DSL entry won its division with a regular season record of 46-24. With a loss last night, a blowout 16-1 home defeat vs. Tri-City, the Aberdeen IronBirds fall to 22-48 with seven losses in a row and they tie a club mark for losses in a season. The 2005 IronBirds went 27-48 but had a whopping seven players from that team that made the majors, proving my theory that a club's minor league record in no way correlates to the number of prospects on the roster. That 2005 Aberdeen club featured Nolan Reimold, Brad Bergesen, David Hernandez, Radhames Liz, Garrett Olson, Jim Hoey and Bob McCrory. At the end of that season, Baseball America ranked Reimold, Liz and Olson among the top 10 prospects in the New York-Penn League. In answer to another useless trivia question, yes, I was the play-by-play broadcaster for that Aberdeen team and we had a lot of fun despite all the losses.