Minor league notes and a look at the Yankees-O's series

All but one of the Orioles' minor league affiliates have completed the regular season after Monday's games. Short-season Single-A Aberdeen (40-33) still has three games to play and is three games behind in the New York-Penn League wild card race.

Single-A Frederick (68-71) and Double-A Bowie (72-68) will begin the playoffs at home on Wednesday night. While Frederick finished three games under .500, its second-half record (37-33) got the Keys in and they will host Lynchburg Wednesday and Thursday in the first two games of the Carolina League playoffs.

Bowie will host Altoona Wednesday and Thursday to start the Eastern League playoffs. Right-hander Cristian Alvarado (7-9, 5.00 ERA) will pitch Game 1 for Frederick. Right-hander David Hess (11-9, 3.85 ERA) will pitch the series opener for Bowie.

Triple-A Norfolk finished 66-76, but went 26-19 in its last 45 games. Single-A Delmarva finished 59-78. The Gulf Coast League Orioles went 28-32 and the Dominican Summer League team went 32-37.

Some notes from around the Orioles farm:

* Bowie outfielder Austin Hays, who began the year with Frederick, is expected to be named the Orioles minor league Player of the Year later this month. Over a combined 128 games for the Keys and Baysox, Hays hit .329/.365/.593 with 32 doubles, five triples, 32 homers, 81 runs and 95 RBIs. Hays put up some numbers that would rival any player in the minors this year. He has become a top 100 national prospect this year and maybe a highly ranked one as well.

Hays finished tied for second in all of the minors with his 32 homers. He hit 16 in 262 at-bats with Frederick and 16 in 261 at-bats with Bowie. Hays should be ranked as the No. 1 Orioles prospect when the organization's players are ranked this winter.

* Norfolk infielder Drew Dosch led the International League with 36 doubles. Dosch is the second consecutive Tides player to lead the league in doubles, as Dariel Álvarez paced the circuit with 38 last season. Dosch's 36 doubles are the fifth-most in Tides history.

* Norfolk's Harbor Park again proved to be a tough park in which to hit. The Tides averaged 5.1 runs per game on the road but just 3.3 at home.

* Bowie's Ryan Mountcastle finished with 48 doubles between Frederick and Bowie and that is the most by any player in all of minor league baseball. Mountcastle will head into the playoffs with a hot bat. He is batting .300 (9-for-30) his last seven Bowie games with four doubles and a homer. That raised his average with the Baysox from .203 to .222.

Here is something pretty remarkable: Mountcastle didn't play for Frederick after July 18, but he finished with enough plate appearance to qualify for the Carolina League leaders and won the batting title in the league at .315. He also led the league with 51 extra-base hits in just 88 games.

* Bowie's DJ Stewart, named yesterday as the Orioles' minor league Player of the Month for August, finished with 21 homers and 20 stolen bases. He is the first Bowie player to ever pull off that 20-20.

* Frederick outfielder Ademar Rifaela from Curacao was recently named MVP in the Carolina League. He led the league with 24 homers and 225 total bases. He finished second with 78 RBIs and a .500 slugging percentage. He was fifth in hits with 128 and batting at .284.

* Delmarva lefty Alexander Wells finished 11-5 with a ERA of 2.38. He led the South Atlantic League in ERA and WHIP at 0.91. He finished tied for second in wins. Wells walked just 10 batters all year and fanned 113 in 140 innings. Remarkably, he went the last 68 innings since June 25 without a walk and he walked just two batters his last 17 starts and 98 1/3 innings. He is the likely winner of the minor league Pitcher of the Year award.

These are just a few of the highlights from this season on the O's farm. There are many more, and we will have time as we get into the offseason and over the winter to present more. But having one player lead all of the minors in doubles and win a batting title in one league he hasn't played in for weeks is pretty strong stuff. So is having a player go 68 innings without a walk. So is having a player hit more homers than all but one player in the minors this year.

Good luck to Frederick and Bowie in the playoffs starting tomorrow.

As for the Orioles: The Orioles have not pitched well this season versus the Yankees and they gave up seven runs in Monday's 7-4 loss to the Yankees. It is a loss that dropped the Orioles' record to 70-68. But, with Minnesota losing last night to Tampa Bay, the Orioles remain 1 1/2 games back of the Twins for the second wild card. The Angels won Monday and are now just a half-game behind the Twins.

The Orioles offense has produced just 12 runs on 38 hits the last four games. In that span, the Orioles are 2-for-37 with runners in scoring position. Over the past six games, O's starting pitchers have worked to an ERA of 7.57. The last two games, Chris Tillman and Dylan Bundy combined to allow eight runs over eight innings.

Tonight, right-hander Jeremy Hellickson (2-3, 6.55) makes his seventh start for his new team. He has allowed 22 runs over 21 1/3 his past four starts and needs to turn that around tonight. The Yankees are 8-5 against the Orioles this year and have outscored Baltimore 105-64 and out-homered the O's 32-14. New York is averaging 8.1 runs per game in the season series.

Captain Obvious said the Orioles could really use a couple of wins the next two nights. To get them, they will likely have to start pitching much better against New York.