NEW YORK—Alex Cobb hadn’t pitched in 12 days. Cobb didn’t test positive for Covid-19, but he had a cold, and the Orioles placed him on the injured list as a precaution.
The layoff appeared to hurt Cobb. He gave up two home runs to the Yankees in the first inning and a third two batters into the second. The Orioles fell behind 5-0 on the the way to a 6-0 loss to New York in the first game of a doubleheader Friday.
Yankees starter Gerrit Cole, whom the Orioles defeated last Saturday night, allowed only two hits in the seven-inning game and struck out nine.
Cobb allowed a leadoff home run to DJ LeMahieu, and Luke Voit followed with a single. Brett Gardner homered to right and, three batters into the game, the Orioles trailed, 3-0.
Mike Tauchman led off the second with a single, and Kyle Higashioka homered to left to give New York a 5-0 lead.
Cobb said he tested negative for Covid-19 seven or eight times.
“The way we’re operating this year, if you have any type of symptoms you have to proceed like you have Covid and try to stay away from everybody,” Cobb said. “Even if it’s not Covid, even a common cold, if I pass it on to the rest of my team, they’ll have to sit out and wait and get cleared and make sure they don’t have it. So you just have to be away. It’s unfortunate.
“It’s definitely something you would show up every day during a regular season and keep getting work in and kind of stay sharp.”
The three home runs Cobb allowed were one short of a career high.
“I don’t think [the three home runs] were necessarily like great pitches, but definitely good swings were put on them,” Cobb said. “They weren’t necessarily great pitches, but I didn’t think the swings were home-run worthy.”
Hanser Alberto singled with two outs in the fifth for the Orioles’ first hit. Even if Cole didn’t allow a hit, Major League Baseball rules prohibit the use of the term no-hitter for games shorter than nine innings.
Renato Núñez singled with two outs in the seventh for the Orioles’ only other hit.
“I don’t put much stock in our at-bats,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “I think it was Gerrit Cole. He had everything going.”
Cole does get credit for a complete game. He threw 114 pitches in a game that took two hours, two minutes.
Cobb was relieved by Thomas Eshelman after four innings. Cobb gave up five runs on seven hits.
The Orioles are 20-23.
Catcher Pedro Severino, who hadn’t thrown out any of his five baserunners this season, threw out Brett Gardner twice while allowing a steal by Tauchman.
In the sixth, New York scored a run against Eshelman on Tauchman’s RBI single.
Coming up: In Friday night’s second game, Keegan Akin will face Masahiro Tanaka.
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Defense to start the 2nd game definitely not gold glove caliber, Rio missed a simple tag up that he should have made & bases loaded horrible throw home by Iglesias
Scores...gonna be a long night...go O’s...
You left out horrible throw by Mullins.
Touché, to mid-third base...lol, it was ugly...go O’s...
Don’t say you weren’t warned about Akin. Back when he was called up the very first time and it seemed some here were expecting some sort of a miracle I wrote that he was definitely NOT a wunderkind... that he was best known for his inconsistency. Tonight, point made... just saying...
High school defense would’ve helped him tonight, agree, he’s no wunderkind, but he deserved better backing defensively, wonder how much of an impact it was having CD on the field, didn’t see many guys smiling & having fun like they have, he definitely had a great first at bat, 3 swings & misses, never touched a ball...go O’s...
Has this guy ever been healthy?
Which guy?...go O’s...
Sorry, Cobb...when he pitched in TB...not here...go O’s...
Brutal night.
And it's brutal watching Chris Davis try to hit. I actually feel for the guy. I think he'd be OK with the O's just sending him on his way. It's the humane thing to do at this point.
The O’s looked bad today but here’s where they stand with 16 games to go. Only 9 teams have fewer losses and one team had the same amount. Top 8 make the playoffs. Tigers and Astros each have only 1 fewer loss. Bottom line is they’re very much in the hunt still. Am I being overly optimistic?
Probably, but it is 2020! They’re 3.5 games out, so there is certainly a chance (bet you didn’t think we’d say that about a mid sept birds team this yr). Our schedule is just plain brutal, and Santander is on the long term dL, which makes it really tough. Who the heck knows if they’ll make it, but it’s been more fun than I could’ve hoped for!
When your eyes are in the future and the headliner for the night is a relic of the past (Mr. Cobb) you aren’t going forward. The economics of baseball screwed them tonight, crossing their fingers and hoping some foolish organization will offer up something for this stiff who is making Ubaldo look like a bargain.
Look at season starting payrolls, the O’s aren’t spending any $, so I’m not sure how the economics of baseball screwed them, you need to be willing to spend the $, can you imagine what their team salary would look like taking out Davis & Cobb, pathetic...go O’s...