Bats stay quiet in 1-0 loss in first game of doubleheader (updated)

Alex Cobb was first out of the home dugout today, which later became the visiting dugout. Baseball in 2020 is funny that way.

Cobb did a small hop before finding his stride, as every pitcher attempts to do during the game.

There were a few stumbles in the early innings, which soon became middle innings due to the shortening under minor league rules. The four-pitch walk to Miami's Corey Dickerson in the first, his throwing error in the second after fielding Matt Joyce's roller near the first base line, Jonathan Villar's single and a 10-pitch walk to Dickerson in the third. But a couple ground balls and a strikeout got Cobb back to the bench each time.

The fall didn't happen until the fourth with Brian Anderson's leadoff opposite-field home run to break a scoreless tie. And an offense that was shut out last night couldn't pick him up.

It couldn't even get a hit until the fifth.

Elieser Hernández walked a batter and nailed two, but nothing else until Chance Sisco lined a double into the left field corner with one out. The "notable achievement," as Major League Baseball would have recognized it, went up in flames.

So did a rally that included a pinch-hit single by Pedro Severino to put runners at the corners. Reliever Nick Vincent threw one pitch to Hanser Alberto, got a double play and the Orioles did little else in a 1-0 loss at Camden Yards.

The Orioles are 5-5 and can only split the four-game series, with the shine coming off their sweep of the Rays. And it's gotten pretty dull.

"We were playing really good baseball right before this last off-day and I don't know what happened," Cobb said. "We ran into some good pitching the last two games, but we've got to find a way to come together as a team and get these two victories. If we could split the series that would be great, but it would be tough to lose this series."

"Just having a tough time getting it going," said manager Brandon Hyde. "We've had some really good games against premiere pitching. Give these guys credit. We just didn't square many balls up and I don't know if we have guys pressing or what it is, but it was not a very good offensive performance by us this first game."

Renato Núñez walked with two outs in the sixth and advanced on Richard Bleier's wild pitch, but Dwight Smith Jr. bounced to the mound. Pat Valaika reached on an infield hit with two outs in the seventh, but Severino struck out looking.

Hernández made 21 career appearances on the road and was 0-5 with a 7.12 ERA and 1.648 WHIP in 60 2/3 innings. He's 5-7 with a 3.71 ERA and 1.111 WHIP in 32 games at home.

No reason to suspect that he'd become Nolan Ryan except how the Orioles suddenly lost their offensive touch.

Though the Orioles are tabbed as the visitors for the nightcap, the home team for statistical purposes is determined by whose grounds the game is played on, which harkens back to 2015 and the series that moved from Camden Yards to Tropicana Field. The Orioles batted last and were treated as the hosts, but all of the stats were applied to the road column.

If an Orioles pitcher gets the win tonight, it goes down in the stats as happening at home.

Also, Rule 9.17 regarding credit for a win to the starting pitcher still applied today. If he didn't allow a run over seven innings, it's in the books as a complete-game shutout. But a no-hitter is credited only if the pitcher works a minimum of nine innings.

There are limits to the level of weird in 2020, believe it or not. Though hearing "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" for the fifth-inning stretch ranks pretty high.

Hyde didn't use a scientific method to choose Cobb for the opener and Asher Wojciechowski for the second game. He consulted with pitching coach Doug Brocail and checked with Cobb.

"I asked him which game he'd rather pitch," Hyde said. "He's got more experience than Wojo and more service time, so I asked him which one and he said the first one. So that's how we went.

"There weren't a whole lot of analytics involved in the decision. It was, ask the guy that's older which one he wants to throw."

In other words, former NASA engineer Sid Mejdal didn't head the project.

The third inning drained Cobb of 24 pitches to run his count to 52. His second pitch of the fourth, a 92 mph fastball, was lined by Anderson over the out-of-town scoreboard in right to give the Marlins a 1-0 lead.

Cobb struck out two more batters and fanned Monte Harrison to open the fifth and give him seven on the day - all on his split-changeup. He held the Marlins to one run and two hits with three walks in five innings, and his 86 pitches were one fewer than in his previous start.

"I liked the stuff I had today," Cobb said. "I think that's been a work in progress over the last two, three years, honestly, to get this stuff to where it is. But I wasn't really pleased with the way I attacked in the zone today. I had a lot of 3-2 counts, a lot of behind-in-the-counts. Three walks again. My game plan was to be really aggressive in the zone. I know they're an aggressive team, so I was going to have to throw some off-speed, a lot of off-speed, but I would have liked to have been a little more aggressive in the zone with my fastball and gotten some quicker outs.

"It's not going to hurt us in a seven-inning game, but as starters we can't just go five innings and leave the rest up to the bullpen. It's not a good recipe for us or for them in the bullpen."

Miguel Castro struck out four of eight batters faced after replacing Cobb. His workload increased after another Núñez error at third base.

The Orioles, now 8-24 against the Marlins, stranded two runners in the first after José Iglesias was hit by a pitch upon his return to the lineup and Núñez walked. Iglesias took a fastball in front of his right shoulder, the Marlins challenged the call and it stood.

So did Iglesias, though he was in pain.

Sisco couldn't break immediately on Severino's shallow fly ball to center field, making sure the ball found grass instead of a glove. A sprint from the start would have tied the game.

Or maybe put a few more innings in it.

"I love the mindset of going into a seven-inning game," Cobb said. "I know a lot of baseball purists probably don't like it, but as a starting pitcher you can see the finish line and you know you have a real quality chance to get to it with pitch count and everything like that. ... But if you get behind it shortens that window real quick."

Second game lineup:

Hanser Alberto 2B
Anthony Santander RF
José Iglesias DH
Renato Núñez DH
Pedro Severino C
DJ Stewart LF
Pat Valaika 3B
Andrew Velazquez SS
Cedric Mullins CF

Asher Wojciechowski RHP