It sure didn’t look like Alex Cobb had missed most of the last two months.
Making his first start on Thursday since July 23 after battling a wrist injury, Cobb picked up where he left off earlier in his bounce-back season, spinning five scoreless innings in the Angels' 9-3 win over the Chicago White Sox.
“I was hoping for [him to pitch] good, but I wasn’t expecting that,” Angels manager Joe Maddon said of Cobb. “That really did exceed expectations. It’s wonderful to see to build on for us and for him.”
It helped the Angels win a rubber-match against the first-place White Sox too, lifting the team to 72-74 on the season and a 4-4 mark to finish their eight-game road trip.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Maddon said. “I thought we played hard … the whole road trip.”
Here are three observations from Thursday.
Cobb’s comeback
Cobb’s wrist injury originally came out of nowhere, a pain that developed while he was trying to come back from an unrelated blister issue.
MRI scans revealed no structural damage. And he felt like it was something that would either clear up in a matter of days, or that would take several weeks.
The latter scenario came true, but Cobb never considered shutting things down and ending his season early.
“There’s a lot of motivations to go out and pitch,” the right-hander said. “I just want to end this year healthy and feeling good.”
Cobb made a big step toward that goal Thursday, surprising even himself with sharp execution of a predominately splitter-sinker combination.
In his five scoreless innings, he gave up only two hits (both singles) and two walks while striking out five.
“I didn’t think I was going to work that deep into the game and I definitely thought I’d probably be working a little bit harder,” Cobb said. “But the overall stuff I was really happy with.”
Cobb, who will be a free agent this winter, is now 8-3 on the season with a 3.59 ERA.
“Whether I’m here or not next year, a big aspect of building on the previous year is that record,” Cobb said. “If we can try to get to above .500 or stay around .500, it can do a lot for our confidence going into next year.”
Lefties go wild
With the Angels facing White Sox right-hander Reynaldo López, Maddon went with a left-handed heavy lineup that included Brandon Marsh in the leadoff spot (his first time topping the batting order), Shohei Ohtani batting third and four more left-handers in the final five spots.
It was an effective plan, with the six left-handers combining for seven of the Angels’ 10 hits and drove in five of their nine runs.
A two-run homer from Luis Rengifo, a switch-hitter batting from the left side, opened the scoring in the second inning.
Jose Rojas also belted a two-run blast during the Angels’ five-run fifth.
Meanwhile, Ohtani had two infield singles, Marsh picked up a hit and Jared Walsh reached base three times and had an RBI.
The right-handed hitter who did the most damage: Jack Mayfield, who lined a bases-loaded three-run double down the left-field line in the fourth — following a couple sloppy plays from the White Sox defense — then added another RBI on a sacrifice fly in the fifth.
Intentional HBP?
There was some late controversy in the ninth inning, when White Sox reliever Mike Wright was ejected after hitting Ohtani with a pitch in the leg, a plunking that came after he’d thrown two pitches earlier in the at-bat well inside.
White Sox manager Tony La Russa was also ejected after arguing with umpires, but told reporters postgame that the hit-by-pitch wasn’t on purpose.
Maddon, however, had a different point of view when asked if he thought it was intentional.
“Absolutely,” he said. “We had hit two hitters for them inadvertently [earlier in the series] … So it was retaliatory. We knew that.”
