BALTIMORE _ This was seemingly the night that Alex Cobb had finally found his footing, keeping the ball on the ground against his former team and holding the Tampa Bay Rays to one run through his first four innings Wednesday at Camden Yards.
As rain intensified while Cobb took the mound for the top of the fifth, the sky fell on Cobb's outing. He wouldn't survive the inning, letting a two-run lead evaporate as Tampa Bay scored four runs in the frame. Cobb allowed six of the eight batters he faced in the frame to reach base in the Orioles' 8-4 loss to the Rays.
It was a frustrating inning for Cobb, who through three starts is still searching for the form that prompted the Orioles to make a four-year, $57 million investment in him in late March, forcing an unconventional preparation for the regular season that is still showing rust through his first three starts.
In three starts, Cobb has allowed 30 hits over 12 innings, recording a 13.11 ERA on the season after allowing five runs on 10 hits over five innings Wednesday.
The loss was the Orioles' 10th in their past 11 games. They have also lost 12 of 14 in starting the season 6-18. The Orioles are 3-8 at Camden Yards.
Cobb's most effective pitch on Wednesday his first two times through the Tampa Bay batting order _ his curveball _ was punished in the fifth inning. Three of the Rays' five hits off Cobb in the fifth came against the curveball, including C.J. Cron's two-run double that erased the Orioles' 3-1 lead going into the inning.
Two batters later, Cron scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Brad Miller, and Daniel Robertson took a curveball down the third base line for a double, prompting Cobb to yell into his glove in frustration. Joey Wendle's ensuing RBI single _ another hit that came on a curveball _ gave Tampa Bay a 5-3 lead, and Cobb was pulled after he walked Wilson Ramos on the next batter.
Heading into the fifth, Cobb was effective throwing his curveball for a strike early in the count to get ahead of hitters, but the third time through the order, they were sitting on the curveball through the rain.
Cron's two-run hit came after Denard Span reached on an infield single to shortstop Manny Machado on the edge of the outfield grass, the third infield single Cobb allowed on the night. He was able to work around the first two, getting a 5-4-3 double play following Joey Wendle's leadoff infield inning in the fourth. In the second, Mallex Smith reached on an one-out infield single and stole second, but Cobb stranded him there.
Cobb has allowed five infield hits this season in three starts, the most in the majors despite having at least three fewer starts than most starters.
The Orioles took a rare lead in the second inning on a two-run double by second baseman Jace Peterson, who made an immediate contribution in his first at bat with the team after he was claimed off waivers from the New York Yankees on Tuesday, that gave the Orioles a 3-1 lead.
Cobb fell behind 1-0 in the first _ he has allowed at least one run in the first inning in all three of his starts _ on Brad Miller's RBI ground out, but Adam Jones' RBI double that scored Trey Mancini in the bottom of the first tied the game at 1.
Catcher Chance Sisco _ hitting in the No. 2 spot of the batting order for the first time _ hit his first homer of the season with an opposite-field solo homer in the fifth inning to cut the Tampa Bay lead to 5-4, but reliever Miguel Castro allowed a solo homer to Adeiny Hechavarria in the sixth and the Rays plated two runs off left-hander Tanner Scott in the seventh.
