Bowie loses, now one game down with one left

The Bowie Baysox picked a bad time for their offense to go south. Bowie was held scoreless on just two hits Sunday in a 1-0 loss at Richmond. Coupled with Harrisburg's 13-3 romp over Binghamton and Bowie is now one game back of the Senators for the final Eastern League playoff berth with one game to go. Bowie needs to win Monday's Noon game at Richmond while Harrisburg loses its 1 p.m game at Binghamton. If that happens, the teams finish the regular season tied for second in their division and will meet in a one-game playoff Tuesday night at Bowie. But a Bowie loss or Harrisburg win would end Bowie's season. Richmond pushed across a run in the 8th vs. Bob McCrory to gain the win. Baysox starter Steve Johnson pitched a great game in a losing cause, with seven innings of shutout, one-hit ball vs. Richmond. He got out of a two-out, bases loaded jam in the second and fanned six batters. Johnson ends the regular season with 128 strikeouts, that is fifth most in the Eastern League. Johnson's 128 strikeouts are the most by any O's minor leaguer this year, four more than Zach Britton. He retired 15 in a row at one point. Didn't his dad once pitch a great game on the second to last day of a season once during a pennant race? I don't think anyone stepped on a nail this time. Pedro Viola is scheduled to start for Bowie in Monday's game. Manny Machado had huge hit in Aberdeen's 8-7, 13-inning win over Connecticut on Sunday in the IronBirds final game of the year. With two outs in the last of the 13th and Aberdeen down 7-5, Machado's two-run triple to right tied the game. Kipp Schutz, who was named team MVP before Sunday's game, then singled in Machado for a thrilling win. It was Aberdeen's 8th walk-off win of the year. Aberdeen won despite allowing 20 hits to finish the year at 34-40. Machado hit .345-0-3, going 10 for 29 in seven games with Aberdeen. He went 4 for 7 batting vs. left handers and was 2 for 5 when batting with runners in scoring position.