O's game blog: Chen faces Yankees, plus a look at minor league playoffs

The road trip has moved on to Yankee Stadium,where the Orioles and New York open a three-game series this afternoon. The Orioles (65-71) have lost 14 of 17 games and another loss today would put them a season-high seven games under .500.

The Orioles are 14-18 in American League East road games. They are 5-8 versus New York and just 1-6 with four straight losses at Yankee Stadium. They are 0-4 at New York when the game is decided by one run.

Left-hander Wei-Yin Chen (8-7, 3.36) gets the start today. Chen allowed five runs in 4 2/3 innings in his last start last Monday versus Tampa Bay. He is 4-2 with a 4.62 ERA in nine second-half starts. Chen is 1-1 with a 2.79 ERA this season in three starts against New York. In his last four starts versus the Yankees, he is 1-2 with a 2.84 ERA.

Pineda (10-8, 4.07 ERA) is 2-1 with a 5.60 ERA in three 2015 starts against Baltimore. In 17 2/3 innings, he has fanned 27 with just two walks.

Catcher Caleb Joseph is batting .500 (15-for-30) against the Yankees this season with three doubles, a triple, two homers and six RBIs.

The playoffs: The Orioles' Triple-A Norfolk affiliate will begin the International League playoffs at home on Wednesday and Thursday nights at Harbor Park. The Tides will host either Columbus or Indianapolis in a best-of-five series.

Taking a guess at their rotation to start that series, we could see Terry Doyle and Chris Jones pitch the first two games. Tyler Wilson's next turn would fall on the day of Game 3. Buck Showalter said today that Wilson would make at least one more start for Norfolk. He could rejoin the Orioles later this month.

The Tides have a team ERA of 3.14 heading into today's regular season finale and that ranks second in the IL. Indy is first at 3.09. Norfolk is looking to win its first team ERA title since the Tides did so from 1995-1997.

Double-A Bowie will open the Eastern League playoffs on the road Wednesday and Thursday at Altoona and then host Game 3 on Friday and the next two, if necessary. It looks like Joe Gunkel and Chris Lee line up to pitch those first two games, with David Hess possibly in the third game. Bowie is 5-9 against Altoona this season.

Bowie is 79-62 and needs a win today in its last regular season game to post its third 80-win season in team history. The Baysox won 84 in both 1994 and 2008.

Bowie's Trey Mancini is 7-for-8 with a homer and two RBIs over his last two games. That has raised his average from .345 to .358. For the Baysox, he has hit .370 versus left-handed pitchers and .354 against right-handers.

On Sunday afternoon, I asked Orioles manager Buck Showalter what it means to the organization to have at least two minor league teams make the playoffs and about the year overall on the farm.

"What does it actually mean? You tell me," Showalter said. "It's funny how when teams win people say they are developing players and when teams win they talk about how winning is part of development.

"You never let anything stand in the way of developing players for the major league club, but when you play that many games, you like to get something for it. For Gary (Kendall) and his staff and Ron (Johnson) and his staff, it's been a long season.

"I know it means a lot to the fans in Norfolk, Bowie and Aberdeen. I'll tell you, there has probably not been a better job done in our system than the job in Delmarva. That is a really impressive job that Ryan (Minor) and his staff have done. That's a fun team to read about because you can tell they are playing the game right.

"We've had as good a year as we've had in a long time in the Gulf Coast League. We were playing, 16-, 17- and 18-year-old guys every day, unlike some other clubs. You are talking about (Jason) Heinrich, (Ryan) Mountcastle, (Jaylen) Ferguson. I can rattle all their names off. Those guys are 17, 18, playing every day in the Gulf Coast League and finishing eight or nine games over .500 (at 34-25). Pretty impressive. And young pitching, too."