Some notes on the Tampa Bay series and contenders' schedules

After today's off day for the top three American League East clubs, a big weekend begins Friday with the Orioles at Detroit for a three-game series and Boston at Toronto for three games.

Then later, in the final week of the regular season, the Orioles will play three games at Toronto and three at New York. When the Orioles are in Yankee Stadium on the final weekend, Toronto will be at Fenway Park, so a lot of big days and games are ahead.

The Red Sox won last night while the Orioles and the Blue Jays both lost. So the Red Sox lead the American League East by one game over the Blue Jays and two games over the Orioles. The Orioles lead the second AL wild card by a game over Detroit, two over Houston and 2 1/2 games over the New York Yankees.

Here is a look at the remaining schedules for the top three AL East contenders:

Orioles
Home (11): 4 versus Tampa Bay, 4 against Boston, 3 versus Arizona.
Road (12): 3 at Detroit, 3 at Boston, 3 at Toronto, 3 at New York.

Boston
Home (10): 3 versus Orioles, 4 against New York, 3 versus Toronto.
Road (13): 3 at Toronto, 4 at Baltimore, 3 at Tampa Bay, 3 at New York.

Toronto
Home (13): 3 versus Boston, 3 against Tampa Bay, 4 versus New York, 3 versus Baltimore.
Road (10): 4 at Los Angeles Angels, 3 at Seattle, 3 at Boston.

The Orioles (76-63) will head to Detroit (75-64) tomorrow with that one-game lead for the second wild card. Detroit lost the last two games of its series with the Chicago White Sox. But, over a longer stretch, the Tigers have won six of nine and 11 of their past 16 games.

The Tigers are 39-28 at home. Since May 16, Detroit is 34-19 at home. The Orioles went 3-1 at Camden Yards versus Detroit in mid-May, taking the first three of a four-game series. The Orioles are 21-8 against AL Central teams this year.

Yesterday's 7-6 loss to Tampa Bay was frustrating. First of all, you hate to lose when scoring six runs and also when leading three different times in the game. But in the Rays series the Orioles did score 24 runs on 33 hits with five homers and the Birds went 12-for-35 (.343) with runners in scoring position. The offense was good for three games.

They won the first series of a three-series road trip. Will the O's have a winning road trip? Can the offense remain consistently good after the Tampa Bay series? Does the remaining schedule favor one team over the other two?

Sisco named second team: Baseball America released its postseason minor league All-Star team and O's catching prospect Chance Sisco made the second team.

The 21-year-old Sisco spent most of this year at Double-A Bowie. Over 112 games he batted .320/.406/.422 with 28 doubles, one triples, four homers, 44 RBIs and a .828 OPS for the Baysox. Sisco hit over .300 in four of the five months he played with Bowie. He hit .307 in the first half and .340 in the second half. He finished fourth in the Eastern League in batting and first in on-base percentage.

The heavy favorite to be named the Orioles minor league Player of the Year later this month, Sisco moved to Triple-A Norfolk for the season's final four games. He went 4-for-16 (.250) with two homers and seven RBIs with the Tides. He hit a grand slam in his first Norfolk game and a two-run homer in his last game.