Cobb leaves game with injury in latest Orioles loss

MINNEAPOLIS - Alex Cobb needed a sensational diving catch today from Manny Machado to avoid a run from scoring in the second inning. He needed to avoid a leadoff walk in the fifth and the fastball he grooved to Mitch Garver with the count full to have any chance of winning.

Falling behind by two runs can feel like a death sentence. Just imagine the impact of a 10-run deficit later in the day.

Factor in a bunt single that led to Cobb coming off the field with head athletic trainer Brian Ebel, and it was another brutal afternoon of baseball.

Garver hit a two-run homer off Cobb in the fifth to break a scoreless tie, the Twins scored eight runs in the sixth, and the Orioles threatened early without getting a clutch hit and began their slow fade, resulting in a 10-1 loss at Target Field and the first time they've been swept in a four-games series in Minnesota.

Six games on the road trip led to six defeats, leaving the Orioles at 24-65 overall and 12-36 away from home. They've lost 13 of their last 14.

The Orioles are 41 games below .500 for the first time since Aug. 1, 2010, immediately before Buck Showalter took over as manager. They've scored one run or fewer in 24 games and avoided their ninth shutout when Chris Davis homered with two outs in the ninth inning.

This is the third road trip of the season that concluded with the Orioles losing all six games. It also happened in Boston and Detroit in April and Anaheim and Oakland in May.

The Twins sent 11 batters to the plate in the sixth. Paul Fry replaced Cobb after Logan Morrison followed Eduardo Escobar's two-run homer by beating out a bunt to the left side of the infield. Cobb made a quick move toward the ball, stopped and was waiting for Showalter and Ebel to get him.

Seven consecutive batters reached before the Orioles recorded an out. The inning included Garver's bases-loaded ground ball to Machado, who bounced a throw home and pulled Caleb Joseph off the plate, and Brian Dozier's three-run shot off Ryan Meisinger into the second deck in left field.

Garver's home run in the fifth was estimated at 419 feet and came after he fell behind 0-2 and worked the count full. Escobar's ball traveled an estimated 424 feet.

Cobb was charged with five runs (four earned) and seven hits in five-plus innings, a scoring change after he left giving Machado an error on the throw home. He walked one batter and struck out five. Fry was charged with four runs (two earned) in two-thirds of an inning.

Jake Odorizzi twice escaped two-on, two-out jams today by getting called third strikes on Davis in the first and sixth innings. He retired 13 of 14 batters before Machado doubled with two outs in the sixth.

Adam Jones doubled with two outs in the third and Machado grounded out.

Davis has homered in four of his last 11 games.

Cobb has allowed five runs or more in half of his 16 starts, though one today was unearned. Showalter will update Cobb's injury later today and whether the right-hander might be headed to the disabled list.