Surging A's beat slumping O's as homestand begins (with quotes)

This being the 2018 Orioles, right-hander Alex Cobb retired the Oakland A's through two innings tonight and looked good doing so. And then he retired from this game.

Presumably once again dealing with a blister on his right middle finger, Cobb pitched out of a two-out jam in the first and retired Oakland 1-2-3 on just nine pitches in the second.

But Mike Wright Jr. took to the mound to start the third. Oakland scored three runs off him and beat the Orioles 3-2 at Camden Yards in the opener of a nine-game homestand.

This was not the start to the homestand the Orioles were looking for. They fall to 41-103 and have lost five in a row, nine of 10 and 17 of the last 21 games. The Orioles are 24-45 at home.

Oakland (88-57), which began the night leading for the second American League wild card by 7 1/2 games, has won five in a row and seven of eight. The Athletics are 4-0 versus the Orioles and 33-15 since the All-Star break. Oakland improved to 28-12 in one-run games. They are heading toward the postseason and the Orioles are heading toward a club record for losses.

The Orioles' only runs were knocked in by shortstop Jonathan Villar. In the Baltimore sixth, he drilled a 3-1 changeup from right-hander Mike Fiers 421 feet to center. It was his 13th homer of the year and seventh as an Oriole. But Fiers went six strong innings to get the win and is now 5-0 with a 2.72 ERA in seven starts for Oakland. In the O's eighth, Villar's single to left scored Breyvic Valera, who had singled and stolen second base.

In the Oakland third, Wright walked two and allowed the three runs on three hits. Matt Chapman had an RBI double while Khris Davis and Stephen Piscotty added RBI singles.

But the O's did OK after Cobb's exit and the third inning. Wright pitched scoreless ball in the fourth and fifth and was replaced by Yefry Ramírez. He threw two scoreless innings. Tanner Scott fanned two in a scoreless eighth and Mychal Givens threw a 1-2-3 ninth.

But the Orioles, who had scored just 25 runs during their 1-8 road trip, were held to two tonight. They are 4-54 when scoring two runs or less.

Postgame quotes

Cobb on when the blister became an issue: "It's been kind of lingering for a little while. It's always present. I don't know if it's so much a blister as a cut. It's kind of turned into something a little bit bigger. I realized I probably couldn't go any more after the second inning. Last batter of the second inning, it started ripping open pretty good. Was going to really make me alter the way I throw the ball and that could lead to other issues, so you just realize no reason to push it at that point. Yeah, it's frustrating. I felt really good that first inning-plus with my stuff. And was looking forward to competing. It's fun when you are facing a team like Oakland. They are in a good chase and you like to measure up against them and see where you're at."

Cobb when asked where he goes from here and will the offseason resolve the issue?: "I don't know the answer to that. We are going to take the information we learned from this last go-around. It's going to be a similar process, I think. Be a little bit more cautious, I would say. I don't know what that is going to entail though.

"It will be completely gone in the offseason, I'd imagine. It will be gone in a couple of weeks, I would think. You know, throughout the course of the season you're going to battle knicks, bruises, whatever. I have had blisters in the past. Like I said, I really wouldn't consider this a blister, more of a cut. I haven't really dealt with that before. I'm learning this as we go along with it. I don't see it prolonging into next year or anything like that."

Cobb is unsure if Orioles will have him start again this year: "The fact that we're in September, I mean I don't ever want to leave the bullpen dry, but the fact we're in September, helps with that. The fact of it being just a finger issue and it's not like I'm trying to push through a sore elbow or sore shoulder. A muscle type of injury. You are able to push it a little more, I think. I don't have the answer to what it's going to look like in the coming days and what we'll be dealing with. But we'll reassess it tomorrow and the goal is to continue to pitch at some point this year. I just don't know when that will be."