Givens goes to injured list with shoulder inflammation; Orioles recall Zimmermann from Norfolk; Cobb faces former team

SAN FRANCISCO-The Orioles placed right-hander Mychal Givens on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation, retroactive to Thursday, and recalled left-hander Bruce Zimmermann from Triple-A Norfolk.

Givens, who was re-signed by the Orioles in December, has pitched in only six games because he began the season on the injured list with a left knee injury. He’s 0-1 with an 11.25 ERA.

“I think he just felt it a little bit after his last outing,” manager Brandon Hyde said.

Givens faced three batters without retiring any in the Orioles’ 12-8 loss to Cleveland on Wednesday.

“Hopefully, he can get some rest and get some time to heal up and help us out when he gets off the IL,” Hyde said.

Hyde thinks Givens will miss just the minimum 15 days.

“I never want to put a number on it or days on it, but I think it will just be the minimum,” Hyde said.

Zimmermann, who started last season’s Orioles home opener, was  2-3 with a 4.05 ERA in nine games for Triple-A Norfolk.  He’s 6-10 with a 5.65 ERA in 31 games, 27 starts, in the three previous seasons for the Orioles.

“Right now he’s in our bullpen,” Hyde said. “Especially the game two days ago to be able to get somebody to give us some length out of the ‘pen, that’s important. He’s been throwing the ball well down there and knows the big leagues and been up here with us.”

Cobb faces Orioles: Alex Cobb had a rough three seasons with the Orioles. After signing a four-year, $57 million contract in March 2018, Cobb went 7-22 with a 5.10 ERA in three seasons. He was traded to the Los Angeles Angels before the 2021 season and is in his second season with the Giants.

Cobb is 4-2 with a 3.05 ERA in 11 starts.

“Towards the tail end of my time there, I could see the talent coming,” Cobb said. “It was a frustrating little gap that I was a part of. I missed out on the times when the team was really rolling.

“I was there for that rebuild. I could see a lot of the prospects coming up. They were going to be very talented. With the new front office they brought in, you knew they were going to help groom the kids coming up and teach them with the analytics coming to the forefront in that organization, that they were going to be in good hands.”

Cobb’s time with the Orioles was difficult. He didn’t win a game at Oriole Park in 18 starts.

“Just frustrating,” he said. “Such high expectations and hopes going into the 2018 season. As a team as an organization, I felt like it got off to such a bad start. There was so many things that happened early on that you wish you could have done differently. Just got off to a slow start, and before you knew it, it was trade deadline time and the parts were being broken down and sold.”

Injuries limited Cobb to three starts in 2019.

“I knew we were going in for a rebuild. You want to do it as much as you can as a competitor to go out there and compete and you end up getting a torn hip labrum and missing the whole year, basically, trying to pitch through that, and then Covid happened. We had two months of a season, and that was it.

“When you signed the four-year deal, you think about how long that’s going to be, what could happen, and then you look back on it, and it just goes by in such a blink.

“It just didn’t work out. Not a lack of effort on anybody’s part, but just didn’t go according to plan.”

Cobb played with Austin Hays, Ryan Mountcastle and Anthony Santander.

“Excited to face them. Obviously one of the better teams in baseball right now,” Cobb said. “You see the record. You see the talent they have in the lineup. To have that record in the AL East, that speaks for itself. There’s no off days, there’s no rollovers in that division that you can just show up and win. You’re fighting every night.”