Cobb strong in return to the mound, Orioles beat Red Sox
BOSTON — Orioles pitcher Alex Cobb has been waiting a long time to tell his teammates “thank you“following a victory.
That wait ended with his first regular-season win in almost two years.
Cobb mostly kept the Red Sox off balance on Saturday allowing just four hits and one run while striking out six in Baltimore’s 7-2 win. It was a big change from the day before, when the Orioles watched the Red Sox tally 17 hits in a 13-2 win on opening day.
After missing most of last season with a hip injury that required surgery, Cobb said making his first start since April 2019 was a small step in a journey to get back to where he wants to be.
“You have to start somewhere,” said Cobb, who went 5 1⁄ innings to pick up
3 his first victory since Sept. 4, 2018 against Seattle. “There’s been a lot of work put in, post-surgery, rehab. 7 2
It’s real nice to be able to see results.”
Anthony Santander and Renato Nunez each drove in two runs.
Hanser Alberto finished with three hits. Austin Hays and Jose Iglesias added two apiece. The trio combined to go 7 for 15 with a double, two RBIs and four runs scored.
Manager Brandon Hyde said there’s lots of room for Cobb (1-0) to grow.
“Don’t think, actually, he had his best stuff,” Hyde said. “But as a competitor, knows how to pitch and really did a great job. Stretched him out a little bit, which isn’t a bad thing.”
Cobb took a seat in the sixth after giving up a solo home run to Mitch Moreland.
But he had room for the mistake thanks to the run support from an Orioles lineup that jumped on pitches from Boston starter Martin Perez early in atbats to give him a 5-0 cushion. The Red Sox added another run off reliever Paul Fry to pull within a margin of 5-2. Fry was pulled in favor of Miguel
Castro, who promptly struck out pinch hitter Xander Bogaerts to end the threat.
Perez (0-1) lasted just five innings in his Red Sox debut, giving up five runs on six hits and walking two.
Hays and Alberto opened the game with back-to-back hits. Perez seemed to be working his way out of the jam after striking out Iglesias and getting Santander to line out, but Nunez doubled off the Green Monster, scoring Hays and Alberto.
“Martin didn’t really get those pitches where he wanted to,” Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke said.
A wild pitch advanced Nunez to third and he made it 3-0 when Rafael Devers mishandled Pedro Severino’s soft grounder to third.
The Red Sox were just 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position, stranding 10 runners on base. Their biggest bright spot was Alex Verdugo, who had three hits in his first start since coming over in the trade that sent Mookie Betts and David Price to the Los Angeles Dodgers.