Minor league notes on Schoop, Hobgood, Gausman and more

The Triple-A Norfolk Tides remain the winningest and also the hottest team in the O's minors right now. The Tides beat Syracuse in 11 innings Sunday to conclude a 7-1 homestand at Harbor Park. Here is a look at each of the O's four full-season clubs: Norfolk is 20-10, tied for first and has won nine of its last 10 games. Double-A Bowie is 13-16 and has lost nine of its last 12. Single-A Frederick is 17-13 and tied for first and has won three in a row and seven of its past nine games. Single-A Delmarva is 15-15 winning its last two after a four-game losing streak. Travis Ishikawa's walk-off single ended Sunday's win for Norfolk and the Tides will send Steve Johnson to the mound tonight at Buffalo to begin a road trip. Norfolk's Jonathan Schoop is now batting .250 with one homer, 12 RBIs and a .677 OPS in 27 games. Schoop was batting .164 April 20 but, in 13 games since then, has batted .366 with four doubles and nine RBIs. He is hitting .296 vs. left-handed pitching. Schoop has started 11 games at second base and 16 at shortstop. But nine of his last 11 starts have come at second. Bowie's Kevin Gausman lost at Akron on Sunday, despite giving up just two runs over seven innings. He has thrown 94 and 91 pitches in his last two starts. On the season, the right-hander out of LSU is 1-4 with an ERA of 3.53 over six starts. But over his last three starts, Gausman's ERA is just 1.83 with four earned runs over 19 2/3 innings. His amazing strikeout-to-walk ratio is now 32-to-1 over 35 2/3 innings. Frederick swept Carolina over the weekend as the Keys bullpen pitched a combined 11 2/3 shutout innings in that series. The Keys' team ERA of 3.55 is tops among O's farm clubs, followed by Delmarva at 3.81, Norfolk at 3.90 and Bowie at 4.32. Delmarva's Matt Hobgood pitched a season-high 4 1/3 shutout innings of relief Sunday, retiring the last 10 batters he faced. Hobgood is now 3-0 with an ERA of 0.90 in nine games. Over 20 innings, he has allowed nine hits and two runs with 10 walks, 13 strikeouts and a .136 batting average against. He has pitched 7 1/3 scoreless innings on one hit over his past two outings. Delmarva outfielder Greg Lorenzo from San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic, may be batting just .224 in 29 games but he leads the O's farm system with 12 stolen bases. In fact he has stolen 12-of-12. Xavier Avery with seven steals is next closest. The 21-year-old Lorenzo has six steals over his last five games. He was signed in July 2009 and has spent most of his time since playing short-season ball until this year. O's minor league batting leaders: .352 - Christian Walker, Delmarva .317 - Caleb Joseph, Bowie .316 - Creede Simpson, Delmarva .300 - Jason Pridie, Norfolk; Wynston Sawyer, Delmarva O's minor league strikeout leaders: 38 - Tim Berry, Frederick 32 - Kevin Gausman, Bowie 28 - Eddie Gamboa, Bowie; Eduardo Rodriguez, Frederick 27 - Parker Bridwell, Delmarva