For third straight year, an Oriole is majors' home run leader (plus other notes)

Until the 2013 season, the Orioles had seen one of their players lead the majors in home runs just one time in team history. Frank Robinson topped them all with 49 homers when he won the Triple Crown in 1966.

Now the Orioles have had the major league home run leader for three consecutive seasons: Chris Davis with 53 home runs in 2013, Nelson Cruz with 40 in 2014 and Davis again with 47 this year.

In 74 games after the All-Star break, Davis hit .293 with 28 homers, 65 RBIs, a .669 slugging percentage and an OPS of 1.078. He homered five times in April, seven in May, six in June, seven in July, 10 in August and 12 in September/October.

More notes on the Orioles:

* Manny Machado is the youngest player to play every game in a season for the Orioles since Cal Ripken Jr. in 1983. Machado was the only player in the American League to play all 162. Seattle's Kyle Seager played in 161 games. Three others - Davis, Evan Longoria of Tampa Bay and Elvis Andrus of Texas - played in 160 games.

* Speaking of homers, for the fourth straight year, the Orioles hit 200 or more homers, and this season, they hit more than they had in the previous three seasons:

2012: 214
2013: 212
2014: 211
2015: 217

The Orioles are the only major league club with an active streak of four straight years of 210-plus homers, and they had never done before that in team history. The last Major League Baseball team to hit 210 or more for four consecutive years was Philadelphia from 2006-09.

* Here is where some Orioles ranked among the final American League leaders: Davis ranks first in homers (47), strikeouts (208) and homer/at-bat ratio (12.19). He ranks second in RBIs (117), third in extra-base hits (78), fourth in slugging (.562) and total bases (322) and tied for fourth in walks (84).

Machado ranks second in at-bats (633) and fourth in runs (102). Wei-Yin Chen finished seventh in ERA (3.34) and Zach Britton tied for third in saves (36).

* Former Oriole minor league pitcher Zach Davies was named the Milwaukee Brewers' Pitcher of the Month for September/October. In six games, Davies went 3-2 with an ERA of 3.71 and a .211 batting average against. In his last two starts against the Cubs and Padres, Davies pitched a combined 13 scoreless innings, allowing seven hits with three walks and 10 strikeouts. He was traded to Milwaukee on July 31 for outfielder Gerardo Parra.

A look at the Orioles ranked on Baseball America's minor league top 20 prospects league lists:

Gulf Coast League: No. 15 Ryan Mountcastle
New York-Penn League: No. 9 DJ Stewart
South Atlantic League: No. 13 Jomar Reyes
Carolina League: No. 10 Chance Sisco, No. 16 Trey Mancini
Eastern League: No. 18 Mancini

The Houston Astros blanked the New York Yankees 3-0 last night to win the American League wild card game. Dallas Keuchel and three relievers teamed up on a three-hitter. Keuchel went six innings on three days' rest, allowing three hits with one walk and seven strikeouts. In three starts this year against New York, he pitched 22 scoreless innings on 12 hits with two walks and 28 strikeouts.

In the National League wild card game tonight, the Chicago Cubs play at Pittsburgh with former Oriole Jake Arrieta (22-6, 1.77 ERA) pitching for the Cubs against Gerrit Cole (19-8, 2.60 ERA).

We will be posting a playoffs game blog each night during the postseason around 7 p.m. The first one was last night, and we got a lot of great comments and had a fun conversation going throughout the game. Come by to talk baseball tonight or any night during the postseason.