O's game blog: It's Alex Cobb against James Paxton in the home opener

After winning four of six on the road to start the 2019 season, the Orioles are back in Baltimore for their home opener. Today the Orioles host the New York Yankees to start a three-game series and seven-game homestand, with Oakland following the Yankees to town.

Tampa Bay at 5-2 is the early leader in the American League East, with the Orioles next at 4-2. Toronto is 3-4, the Yankees 2-4 and Boston 2-5. After losing two of three to the Orioles to begin the season in Yankee Stadium, New York hosted Detroit and lost two of three to the Tigers. The Yankees were beaten 3-1 and 2-1 the last three days, scoring just five runs in that series. In yesterday's loss, Yankees batters struck out 18 times to set a club record for a nine-inning game.

Today marks the 66th home opener in Orioles history. The O's are 44-21 all-time in a season's first home game, including wins in each of the last three and seven of the last eight. This is the seventh time that the Orioles have opened their home schedule against the Yankees, and Baltimore is 4-2 in home openers against New York.

Orioles right-hander Alex Cobb has come off the 10-day injury list today to make this start. He pitched just one inning in a spring game March 23 due to some groin soreness, and that forced him to the IL and kept him from starting on opening day in New York. But he's fine now, and he threw five innings on March 29 in Florida against Minnesota Twins minor leaguers.

Last year Cobb went 5-15 with a 4.90 ERA. But in 11 starts after the All-Star break, he went 3-3 with a 2.56 ERA and 1.156 WHIP. His ERA was fifth in the American League among pitchers who made at least 10 starts after the break.

In the first half, opposing hitters posted this slash line versus Cobb: .313/.358/.541 with an OPS of .899. In the second half those numbers were .232/.288/.377 with a .665 OPS.

After signing late last year, on March 21, it seemed to take Cobb a while to get a real feel for his split-finger fastball. But late in 2018 it really got going for him. He threw it 37 percent of the time in August and 30 percent in September. And while AL batters hit .300 off his splitter in June, the batting average against that pitch was .177, .175 and .100 over the last three months.

Left-hander James Paxton (0-1, 1.59 ERA) will make his second start of the year and second against the Orioles. On Saturday he took the loss versus Baltimore. Over 5 2/3 innings he gave up four hits and two runs (one earned) with one walk and five strikeouts on 82 pitches.

Paxton made his Yankees debut in that game. He went 11-6 with a 3.76 ERA in 2018 for the Mariners. On Nov. 19, Seattle traded him to the Yankees for three players including pitching prospect Justus Sheffield.

The last two years for the Mariners, Paxton went 23-11 with a 3.40 ERA. In 296 1/3 innings he allowed 274 hits and struck out 30.4 percent of his batters faced. That is the fourth-highest percentage for those two years in the American League, and his ERA ranks 17th.

Paxton has reverse splits, as he struggles much more against left-handed batters. Last year he allowed an average of .330 facing lefty hitters but just .202 against right-handers. For his career, he yields an average of .291 against lefty hitters and .225 versus right-handers.

The Yankees currently have 10 players on the injured list. Of the eight who played on the team in 2018, that group of eight last year accounted for 26.5 wins above replacement of the team total of 56.0. That is 47.3 percent.

And yes, this is a real early edition of the game blog. Most days and nights it will be much closer to game time, but here we are all ready for the home opener.