Here are a few notes from the final day of the regular season, which was Monday for most of minor league baseball. Short-season, Single-A Aberdeen still has two games left in the regular season after clinching its first playoff berth last night. It was a disappointing end for the Triple-A Norfolk Tides when they were shutout Monday afternoon, to miss out on their first playoff berth since 2005. Still, some credit should go to the staff and players there, led by manager Ron Johnson, who is the...

PHILADELPHIA - For the last handful of weeks, Nationals manager Davey Johnson has targeted the 90-win mark as what he feels his team will have to reach in order to have a realistic shot at the postseason. With last night's loss, the Nationals now need to go 21-4 to get to 90 wins. That's an .840 winnings percentage, or a 136-win pace. Not looking too likely, huh? Last night's loss stung for a number of reasons. The Nationals held a 2-1 lead going to the bottom of the eighth inning. They...

"September's an eternity." - Buck Showalter In a lot of ways, September feels like it lasts forever. As August concludes, so too does my favorite time of year as those seemingly long summer days grow shorter and shorter. Kids are back in school, the Baltimore humidity begins to subside (it will soon, I promise) and I start to brace myself for the cold winter that will greet us in what seems like a matter of days. I don't think Buck Showalter was talking about my animosity towards the...

PHILADELPHIA - Tyler Clippard might have given up two run-scoring hits in the eighth inning that turned a 2-1 Nationals lead into a 3-2 Phillies advantage, but it wasn't either of those base knocks that he was really kicking himself over after the game. It was the two-out walk to the light-hitting Cesar Hernandez that got it all started. Hernandez came into the at-bat hitting .226 on the season with just one extra-base hit in 31 at-bats. But after getting ahead in the count 1-2, Clippard...

New month, new results for the Orioles? Well, they turned the page on a 12-14 August and have begun September going 2-0. It's a start and they would sure like to make this a September to remember. When the Ryas lost to the Angels in Anaheim last night, the O's moved to within two games of the second American League wild card. Yep, they're still in it. If the Orioles win tonight at Cleveland they will have a three-game win streak. If it seems like it has been a while, it has. The O's last...

PHILADELPHIA - After Sunday night's win over the Mets, Bryce Harper acknowledged that he wasn't 100 percent healthy, although he declined to specify what exactly was ailing him. Turns out, it's Harper's hip. Harper limped his way through four plate appearances in tonight's 3-2 loss, going 1-for-3 with a walk, but there were a handful of times where it was clear that Harper was in some significant discomfort. After the game, manager Davey Johnson revealed that Harper has been getting...

The Orioles scored 13 runs in the first five games of the road trip. They've totaled 14 over the last two days. Scott Feldman pitched seven innings on Saturday and allowed one run. Bud Norris pitched seven innings on Monday and allowed one run. In between, Wei-Yin Chen lasted only four innings. The bullpen posted a 6.43 ERA on the road trip before registering five scoreless innings on Sunday. Matt Wieters had four hits yesterday, making him 5-for-9 in the last two games. Nate McLouth lost...

You will not find his picture on the cover of Sports Illustrated nor Rolling Stone, but Ian Desmond is a rock star. He is a rock, one of the most solid players on the Nationals roster, and he is emerging as a star who deserves to be recognized as such. Desmond's WAR rating currently stands at 5.2 for the 2013 season. Wins Above Replacement - or WAR - is the blue ribbon of baseball analytics. FanGraphs is one of two Web sites that provide ongoing WAR ratings. WAR provides one magical number...

They finally made it. In their 12th year, the short-season Single-A Aberdeen IronBirds are headed to the New York-Penn League playoffs for the first time. With tonight's 7-3 win over Lowell, Aberdeen improved to 38-32 and clinched first place in the McNamara Division. Now the IronBirds advance to the league semifinals and a best-of-three series that it appears will begin Friday night at Ripken Stadium. The championship series is also best-of-three in the New York-Penn League. Aberdeen began...

PHILADELPHIA - Stephen Strasburg and Cole Hamels are locked in a pitchers' duel through six innings. Each All-Star has allowed just one run on two hits. Strasburg has struck out 10 and allowed just three balls out of the infield. Hamels has allowed just two baserunners since the first inning. The difference in this 1-1 game is that Strasburg is going to need to exit after six innings, while Hamels should be good for a little while longer. Strasburg was mowing Phillies batters down with...