Showing no signs of rust, Cobb stifles Boston

If the Orioles are going to see improvement in 2020, they know it needs to come from the pitching side. A staff that in 2019 set an all-time record for home runs allowed also had baseball’s worst ERA, hampered by turnover in the bullpen and ravished by injuries and ineffectiveness in the rotation outside of upstart ace John Means. They know any potential steps forward taken this summer must start on the mound.

As manager Brandon Hyde said on Saturday morning: “190 pitches in eight innings is not a real good formula for a win.”

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All of which puts an onus on Alex Cobb, who was crisp enough in Saturday’s 7-2 victory over the Red Sox at Fenway Park to provide reason to believe such improvement might come from within. Making his first regular-season start in almost exactly 15 months, Cobb held Boston to Mitch Moreland’s solo homer across 5 1/3 innings, striking out six and walking none.

At the very least, it was confirmation that the veteran righty is fully healthy following serious hip surgery last June. It was also objectively one of the best starts he’s twirled in an Orioles uniform since signing a four-year, $57 million contract before the 2017 season, and his first win since Sept. 4, 2018.

“It’s a very small step in this journey, but you have to start somewhere,” Cobb said. "I’m really happy we were able to do that today. There has been a lot of work put in post-surgery and rehab, and I’m really thankful for everyone who helped me, and it’s really nice to see results immediately.”

Since inking that deal, Cobb has often expressed disappointment that he hasn’t lived up to it. He said earlier this month he felt he has something to prove now at age 32, having gone just 5-17 with a 5.36 ERA over the life of the contract. He had gone 48-35 with 3.50 ERA in the six seasons prior with the Rays, often pitching like a frontline starter when healthy.

Glimpses of that began to emerge again this summer, with shortstop José Iglesias remarking that Cobb resembled “Tampa Bay Alex Cobb” during intrasquad games.

And for five full innings on Saturday afternoon, Cobb looked like that pitcher again. Pitching with a sizable lead thanks to RBI hits from Renato Núñez, Hanser Alberto and Iglesias off losing pitcher Martín Pérez, he scattered just three singles before Moreland’s homer chased him in the sixth.

Anthony Santander provided breathing room with a two-run double off Dylan Covey in the seventh after Miguel Castro struck out pinch-hitter Xander Bogaerts to extinguish Boston’s best threat an inning prior.

For a team looking for improvement in the bullpen, Castro’s three-pitch whiff of an elite hitter like Bogaerts was a welcome sight. The 25-year-old righty is a breakout candidate this season after boosting his strikeout rate last summer, functioning for long stretches as the O’s best reliever.

Castro disposed of Bogaerts quickly. Bogaerts looked at a 98-mph sinker for strike one, fouled a 99-mph sinker for strike two and swung through an 87-mph slider for strike three.

“No right-hander wants to face Miguel Castro when he looks like that,” Hyde said. “Castro probably got the biggest out of the game. We really struggled in the sixth and seventh inning last year to keep a lead or keep the game close. For him to punch out Bogaerts in that situation, for me, that was the key to the game.”

Said Cobb of Castro: “He really took the air out of their dugout."

Hyde then turned to Richard Bleier and Mychal Givens to cobble together the final six outs and register the O’s first win of 2020. The Orioles' pitching staff did not walk a batter all afternoon; they only did that four times across 162 games in 2019. Cobb only made three starts last season -- anything more should be a boost, especially if he can regain a semblance of his old form.

“There were days where I was so lost, and physically I didn’t feel like I’d get back to where I was, but in the back of my mind, I’ve always known I’ll get better and I’ll get back to being the pitcher I was four or five years ago,” Cobb said. “It’s definitely a day-to-day feeling, but in the back of my mind, I do believe if I put the work in, the results will come.”