BALTIMORE _ Much like Alex Cobb's splitter dived beneath the Miami Marlins' bats Wednesday evening, the Orioles' hot start to the abbreviated 2020 season made its way into the dirt.
Cobb dazzled in his third start of the campaign, but Baltimore's lineup was again outmatched by a pitcher who hadn't faced a major league opponent in nearly two weeks. After Pablo Lopez worked the first five innings of a shutout Tuesday, Elieser Hernandez nearly equaled him in the Marlins' 1-0 victory over the Orioles, coming in the first game of a doubleheader in which both games were scheduled for seven innings.
Brian Anderson's opposite-field home run on the second pitch of Cobb's fourth inning was the only damage against the veteran right-hander, but with the Orioles (5-5) unable to get a hit off Hernandez until the fifth, it proved to be the difference.
Like Lopez, Hernandez's start against Baltimore was his regular-season debut and his first outing since a July 22 exhibition against the Atlanta Braves. He didn't pitch in the Marlins' first series against the Philadelphia Phillies, during which a handful of Marlins tested positive for the coronavirus. As the case count grew to more than half of Miami's roster, the Marlins experienced a week-long delay, quarantining in a Philadelphia hotel.
The healthy Marlins and a large swath of newcomers have returned with consecutive victories over the Orioles, shutting out Baltimore through the series' first 16 innings.
