O's game blog: Looking for some runs against the Marlins

The Orioles had nine innings to score against Miami last night and could not. They had seven today in the first game of a doubleheader and could not score this time either. Miami's Brian Anderson hit a solo homer leading off the fourth off Alex Cobb as the Marlins blanked the Orioles 1-0.

The O's have lost the first two games of this four-game series by 4-0 and 1-0 as they fall to 5-5 on the year, while Miami is 4-1. The eight day layoff has somehow helped the Marlins' pitching.

The Orioles were last shut out in back-to-back games Sept. 19 and 20, 2017 against the Boston Red Sox.

In the two games the Orioles are a combined 6-for-53 with two doubles. They've gone 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position in the series. Today they didn't have a hit versus Marlins starter Elieser Hernández until Chance Sisco doubled off the right-hander with one out in the fifth. He went to third on a bloop single by pinch-hitter Pedro Severino. But righty reliever Nick Vincent came in and induced Hanser Alberto to hit into a double play and that threat was quieted.

Cobb took the loss, allowing the one run on two hits in five innings with three walks and seven strikeouts. He is now 1-1 with a 2.51 ERA. O's starting pitchers have allowed two earned runs or fewer for five consecutive games, pitching to a 2.25 ERA in that span.

Miguel Castro fanned four over the final two innings, giving the Orioles 11 strikeouts on the game. This is the seventh time in 10 games in 2020 that the staff has fanned 10 or more batters.

O's pitchers have allowed six runs in the last three games and 13 in the last five. But they are 1-2 in those three games and 3-2 over the five contests, dating back to the start of the Tampa Bay series.

O's right-hander Asher Wojciechowski (0-1, 7.20 ERA) will make his second start in tonight's second game. Last Wednesday versus the Yankees he went five innings and gave up four hits and five runs (four earned), allowing three home runs in the first three innings. None of the homers were hit over 386 feet, but the shorter-distance ones count too.

What was notable about that start though, was also that Wojciechowski got 18 swings and misses on his 92 pitches. Statcast recorded 15 swings and misses on a combined 60 breaking pitches he threw that night. In the past he has used a slider, but per Statcast some of his breaking pitches were curves and some were sliders that night. Both were good in that game. Of the 18 curveballs that Yankees swung at, he got nine swings and misses, and that happened on six of his 10 sliders.

In his pregame press briefing today, O's manager Brandon Hyde talked about Wojciechowski's pitches from that game and how he can have some real swing-and-miss stuff at times.

"Good slider," said Hyde. "Got a fastball that has some hop on it. When he is pitching well, he's locating his fastball well and his slider is on. His slider is a plus-plus slider when he's right. We saw that on occasion last year. I remember a game against the Red Sox he went, like, eight innings at home, his slider was devastating and they didn't hit a ball hard on him. So, that is really his bread and butter, that slider against right-handed pitchers.

"What I was impressed with the other day was, he had a better changeup than last year. At times his fastball and changeup can kind of morph in where his changeup is only four or five miles per hour slower than his heater. There was a bigger difference his last start. Had a little bit of sink. That was an equalizer against left-handed hitters as well. With Asher is it about fastball command and that slider."