Offense held in check as Orioles fall in series opener (quotes added)

PHILADELPHIA - In need of a good outing, Orioles right-hander Alex Cobb got one tonight. In need of many victories, the Orioles did not get one tonight.

Their offense was held to three runs or less for the 29th time in the last 40 games in a 3-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies to start a two-game series. A crowd of 28,204 waited out a rain delay of 1 hour, 25 minutes before first pitch.

Philadelphia third baseman Maikel Franco made a diving backhand stop against Chris Davis with two outs and the bases loaded in the Orioles eighth. Davis' bid for a hit to tie the game or put his team ahead was denied on his diving play.

The Orioles (24-60) have lost for the eighth time in nine games. They've lost 19 of 24 games and 28 of 3,7 and the Orioles are 12-31 in road games. Philadelphia (46-37) won for the fifth time in six games and 12th in the past 18 contests. The Phillies improved the majors' best winning percentage in one-run games (.720) and are 18-7 in those contests.

Over 6 2/3 innings, Cobb allowed four hits and three runs with three walks and five strikeouts on 99 pitches. He falls to 2-10 with an ERA of 6.53 and the Orioles are 3-12 in his outings.

But he recorded his seventh quality start with help from reliever Paul Fry. Making his second major league appearance, he got Odúbel Herrera to ground out with the bases loaded in the home seventh.

The Orioles had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the second on a Mark Trumbo homer that was struck so well it should have been worth more than one run. But the O's got just one, since no one was on base. Trumbo blasted a 95 mph fastball from Phillies right-hander Zach Eflin 442 feet. It was his third homer in two games, 11th on the year and his eighth over his past 15 games. The ball left his bat at 113 mph.

The lead lasted just until the last of the third. Rhys Hoskins' two-out, two-run double gave Philadelphia the 2-1 lead on Cobb. The O's tied it 2-2 in the fourth. Manny Machado led off with a groundball double to right - his 100th hit of the season. He advanced to third on Trumbo's bloop single to right and scored on an error by Nick Williams in right.

But in the last of the fourth, that tie game turned into one with Philadelphia leading the Orioles 3-2. Williams drew a one-out walk and scored when catcher Andrew Knapp tripled. Knapp's hard grounder down the first base line went past Davis and Williams scored the go-ahead run easily.

The Phillies pinch-hit for Eflin in the last of the seventh. He went seven innings allowing five hits and two runs in his latest strong start. He did not walk a batter and fanned six, throwing 82 pitches, 60 for strikes.

Elfin improved to 7-2 with an ERA of 2.97. In his first start of July, he followed up on his very strong June. During that month, he went 5-0 with a 1.76 ERA and .218 average against. He did not allow a homer in 30 2/3 innings during June. Tonight, he gave up two or fewer earned runs for the ninth time in 11 starts.

So the O's drop this series opener and have to try and win against Philadelphia right-hander Aaron Nola (10-2, 2.48 ERA) Wednesday afternoon or they'll get swept in this two-game series. Right-hander Yefry Ramirez (0-1, 2.89 ERA) gets the start for Baltimore.

Postgame quotes

Manager Buck Showalter on Cobb's night: "He pitched well. We scored two runs again. I thought he had his best changeup of the year. You knew coming in the game, (with) as many left-handed hitters, they were going to run against him, he was going to need that. Tough night to pitch. It's raining, sweating, you're trying to grip the baseball. I was impressed with Alex. We just didn't get enough run support for him."

Showalter on the frustration of the top of the eighth: "You're just snakebit. I thought Chris (Davis) had some good at-bats tonight and hung in there and carved the ball the other way. It was a little offline at first. It'll go down as a real good play by their first baseman. Alex should have seven clean innings. We just didn't make one play behind him."

Trumbo on facing a Phillies starter coming off a great June and the tough eighth: "Quite honestly, I thought we'd have to really work for it tonight. He's been throwing the ball really well. Had an excellent month of June. We knew that going in. He settled down and threw a nice ballgame. There's not much more we can do (in the eighth) other than, obviously, get a big hit. But the effort was there. The frustration, it's as much as you make of it."

Cobb when asked if that was more like it: "Yeah. There were moments of it that were really what I've been searching for. I didn't repeat it as much as I like. It's hard to really communicate what we are feeling to you guys, people in general, even my own family. It's only really even a conversation to have with people that are doing it. Your peers and other pitchers.

"There is a point with your delivery that everybody tries to get to that really frees you up and allows you to be as aggressive as you want. And I have been searching for that pretty relentlessly for the last three months and even going back to parts of last year. Tonight was a night that I felt like I got to that point in my delivery a good amount of times. Now the next step is to capture that and be able to repeat it over 100 times a night. This is the first step before I can get to that, so I was happy with a lot of the things I did tonight."