Second-round pick Keegan Akin pitching well for Aberdeen (plus O's notes)

As the Orioles' top draft pick in June this year, right-hander Cody Sedlock has gotten a lot of attention, as top picks do. But the Orioles' second draft pick, left-hander Keegan Akin, has quietly put together a nice run at short-season Single-A Aberdeen.

The Orioles selected Akin out of Western Michigan University with the 54th overall selection. He went 7-4 with a 1.82 ERA in college with 133 strikeouts over 109 innings. The Orioles signed him to a bonus of $1.177 million.

Akin was thrilled to get drafted so high.

"I was very happy with that," he said recently at Ripken Stadium. "When some of the pre-draft publications came out, I was not that (listed that) high. It was very exciting to get taken there and it meant a lot to me."

The 21-year-old from Alma, Mich., is being limited to three-inning outings as part of the IronBirds' six-man rotation. In seven games, he is 0-1 with a 1.35 ERA. Over 20 innings, he has allowed 15 hits with six walks and 21 strikeouts. Over his last four games, Akin has thrown 12 scoreless innings on six hits.

He throws two- and four-seam fastballs that sit at 92-93 mph, touching more at times, with a changeup and slider. He provided a scouting report on his pitching.

"Above-average fastball from the left side," Akin said. "Can throw my off-speed pitches for strikes. Basically just compete in the zone. Nothing too special, I just go out and pitch my game.

"Been working on the changeup here. I kind of struggled with that towards the end of my college season and when I first got here. But I think it's back on track. Being limited to three innings each outing, I go out and get my work in and wait for the next start."

In the six-man rotation, the young pitchers in Aberdeen pitch one day, take two days off, throw a bullpen session, take two more days off and then pitch again.

So far, so good for Akin, according to Aberdeen pitching coach Justin Lord.

"I like what I see right now," Lord said. "Has a good left-handed arm, throws three pitches and lot of strikes. He's had some games where both secondary pitches were real good. I think as his secondary stuff gets more consistent, he will really continue to progress. He's got a very simple delivery. It is fairly clean and repeatable which is always good."

Sedlock, from the University of Illinois, and Akin played summer ball together, so they knew each other even before both were drafted by the Orioles. In Aberdeen, they were joined by the Orioles' third overall pick, second-round right-hander Matthias Dietz out of John A. Logan (Ill.) Junior College. Three Midwest guys taken by the same team and all signed by the same area scout, Dan Durst.

When they arrived in Aberdeen, the three became not only teammates, but also roommates and friends.

"It's pretty cool," Akin said. "All three of us came from the same area, the Midwest, and we were all born and raised there too. You don't see three Midwest kids go that high in the draft. Often it is players from the south. We have all bonded together well and become friends."

On to New York: The Orioles remain in third place, but just one game out of first place, as the top three American League East clubs all lost Thursday night. Now it's on to New York for a three-game series this weekend at Yankee Stadium.

The Orioles (70-57) offense got slowed by Max Scherzer last night in the 4-0 loss to the Nationals. Before that loss, they had scored 76 runs in the previous 13 games (5.8 per game), scoring eight or more run sin six of those 13 games.

Now the Orioles get a shot at this younger-looking Yankees team that is 65-61 and has won four of its last six and nine of 14 games. New York just went 4-2 on a road trip to Anaheim and Seattle and posted a team ERA of 1.90 on the trip. Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez is batting .531 (17-for-32) over his last nine games with seven homers and 10 RBIs.

The Orioles are 5-5 against the Yankees in 2016 and 1-3 at Yankee Stadium. The Orioles have lost the opening game of 10 straight series at Yankee Stadium since the start of the 2013 season.

Now the playoff drive really kicks in. Beginning tonight, the Orioles play 12 straight games versus AL East opponents. They will play 29 of their remaining 35 games against division opponents.