Orioles stall but maintain tie for MLB's best road record

SAN FRANCISCO -- Not much went right for the Orioles on Saturday night.

Baltimore could only muster five hits -- three singles and two doubles -- against former Oriole Alex Cobb in a 4-0 loss to the Giants at Oracle Park.

“He had three pitches going,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said of Cobb. “A good fastball with a lot of life and movement, a good split-finger that we had a tough time elevating on him, and a good breaking ball. Not a ton of hard contact. A lot of kind of soft ground balls against him. I thought he had really good stuff tonight. We had a tough time squaring him up.”

Cobb (5-2), who pitched for Baltimore from 2018-20, limited his old team to five hard-hit balls (exit velocity 95 mph or higher) in 7 2/3 innings, striking out seven without issuing a walk.

“He stayed out of the middle,” outfielder Ryan O’Hearn said. “Even when guys hit the ball well, it seemed like they made a great play or it was right at somebody. It was just one of those days.”

Added Hyde: “Tip your hat to Alex Cobb. The guy threw the ball great tonight.”

Baltimore starting pitcher Kyle Bradish was coming off a stellar May that saw him post a 2.76 ERA and 1.02 WHIP in five starts. The right-hander got through two scoreless innings before allowing three runs on five consecutive hits in the third.

Bradish (2-2) managed to get out of the frame and followed up with a scoreless fourth before being removed.

“They’re a pretty good hitting team and they were just rolling,” he said. “I left a few balls up in the zone, but was able to get through it. Went back out for the fourth and had a good fourth inning.”

Adding injury to insult -- literally -- Friday night’s hero Gunnar Henderson left the game with low back soreness in the third inning.

“I took him out [as a] precaution,” Hyde said. “He’s just day to day right now. … It’s been just kind of lingering the last few days. He tried to play through it and … the beginning of the game made it a little more sore.”

With star center fielder and leadoff hitter Cedric Mullins already out of the lineup due to a right groin strain, the Orioles struggled to find any offensive spark, suffering their fifth shutout loss of the season.

“We just didn’t have much going offensively,” Hyde said. “Ced’s a big loss for us. He’s going to be out a while, and we have to pick up the slack there.”

Added O’Hearn: “We hope both of those guys get healthy as soon as possible because we need them. They’re big parts of our team.”

Despite the loss, Baltimore is tied for the best road record in MLB at 19-10. The 19 wins are tied for the franchise’s second-most in the first 29 games of a season since 1958.

The Orioles will turn to right-hander Tyler Wells on Sunday as they try to win the rubber match in San Francisco and improve to 8-2 in road series.