A look at the O's shaky rotation stats, plus Norfolk celebrates a division championship

The Orioles three-game series in Toronto was a lot like most of the 2015 season. Just when it looked like something good could happen, it didn't.

Friday's 10-2 blowout win was impressive and the Orioles crushed the red-hot, high-scoring Blue Jays. Given a chance to win a series at Rogers Centre, the Orioles scored just one run Saturday and gave up 10 runs yesterday.

Friday, the Orioles scored 10 runs on 13 hits with four doubles and four homers, and they went 5-for-10 with runners in scoring position. The past two games they scored a combined five runs on 10 hits and went 1-for-11 with RISP.

The first two games of the series they held the dangerous first five hitters in the Toronto lineup to a .132 combined average as they went 5-for-38. But Sunday that group of five went 10-for-21 (.476) with three doubles, two homers and nine RBIs. I guess you can't keep good men down long.

The Orioles rotation numbers have been dismal lately. In the recent Tampa Bay series, O's starters pitched to an ERA of 11.57 and that mark was 7.11 at Toronto.

No O's starter has pitched even six innings for eight straight games. In the last six games, O's starters have pitched less than five innings in five of the six, covering just 24 1/3 innings total in the six games.

Orioles starters lead the American League with 67 starts of less than six innings this season.

In the last 13 games, the rotation ERA is 7.52. In the past 36 games, the rotation ERA is 5.95 and yes, those numbers are awful.

Keep in mind this stretch of 14 losses in 17 games was preceded by a 5-1 stretch with three walk-off wins. Even during this horrid stretch, the O's had a walk-off win at home and a blowout win at Rogers Centre. Nothing though seems to propel the team to a long winning streak or extended stretch of winning.

At this point the Orioles need to go 17-9 just to have a winning season in 2015. That is a big fall from a 96-win season.

Norfolk celebrates: The Triple-A Norfolk Tides scored seven runs in the first inning Sunday and beat Durham 8-4 to clinch first place. The Tides won the International League South and will now meet the IL West champ in a best-of-five series beginning Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. at Harbor Park. The Tides will host the first two games and then the West winner (either Columbus or Indianapolis) will host the remaining game or games of the series.

Tickets for the first round matchup are currently available online at NorfolkTides.com. Tickets will also be on sale at Harbor Park beginning Tuesday morning at 10:00 a.m. Double-A Bowie is also playoff bound, so go to Baysox.com for Bowie playoff ticket information.

Short season Single-A Aberdeen is doing all it can to make the playoffs and going into the last day of the regular season today, the IronBirds still have a shot to be either a division champ or wild card team in the New York-Penn League.

But it comes down to this: Aberdeen needs a win today at 6:35 p.m. at Hudson Valley and a loss by either Staten Island at Brooklyn or West Virginia at Mahoning Valley to make the playoffs.

The IronBirds have won four in a row to put themselves in position to get in today, but again, they will need both a win and some help. Aberdeen beat Hudson Valley 4-0 Sunday as Cristian Alvarado pitched five scoreless innings and Cedric Mullins drove in two runs.

So the Orioles top two affiliates - Norfolk and Bowie - are in the playoffs as division champs. Aberdeen will try to make that a trio of postseason teams later today.