Jose Bautista, a batter who’s had a measured amount of success against Cobb (3-9, RBI), hit leadoff for Toronto. Cobb left a few pitches left up in the zone — including a hanging of a curveball — against Joey Bats, but was able to collect himself and keep the ball down for the rest of the at-bat, and eventually caught Bautista looking on a well located changeup at the knees.
Next up was Josh Donaldson, who Cobb was able to quickly get ahead of. Unfortunately the righty couldn’t put him away, as Donaldson hit a ground-rule double that rattled around the rafters before landing on the warning track, and over the center-field fence. Two pitches later, Edwin Encarnacion lashed a liner to center, plating the Blue Jays first run. After 28 pitches, and a couple of runs, the inning was over.
In the second inning, Cobb caught Melvin Upton Jr. looking on a fastball up in the zone, but gave up a single to left-field to Kevin Pillar after getting ahead in the count. Cobb coaxed a fielder’s choice to Devon Travis, resulting in an out at second, before he walked Bautista. Alex was frustrated, but was able to pop Donaldson up to end the frame without incurring any further damage…well, with the exception of 25 pitches in the inning and 53 pitches on the night, going into the third.
Around this point in the ballgame, Dave and Andy (on the radio side) pointed out that Cobb hadn’t really been a ground ball coaxing machine. But that changed when Encarnacion stepped into the batter’s box in the third.
The former (and potentially future) ace began to consistently locate his pitches, resulting in weak ground ball outs. Encarnacion grounded out to third on the first pitch of the third, and later on Cobb collected a pair of back-to-back grounders to efficiently end the fourth inning.
Cobb punctuated his return to the mound by fanning side (Travis, Bautista, and Donaldson) in the top of the fifth, needing only 15 pitches to dramatically end his outing to the boisterous applause of the Rays faithful in attendance.
To be clear, it wasn’t the dominant Cobb we’ve grown to know. Sure, he threw 14-of-20 first pitch strikes and bounced back from a two-run hole to hold Toronto scoreless for the remainder of his time on the bump. However, the 28 year-old righty was bereft of his swing and miss stuff; all but one of Cobb’s seven strikeouts were of the caught looking variety, while Alex collected only seven total whiffs. But, as an initial step forward, he laid an excellent foundation from which to build upon.
Meanwhile, Tampa Bay rallied against Marcus Stroman to tie the game at two with runs in the second and third innings.
In the second, Logan Morrison walked then went to third on Nick Franklin’s double to right. He eventually come home on Corey Dickerson’s groundout to second. Then in the third, Logan Forsythe singled to center and moved to second on an error. Two fielder’s choice groundouts later, Forsythe came home and scored the tying run.
In the sixth, LoMo homered after Matt Duffy reached on a double to right, giving the Rays the lead for good. It was Morrison’s second homer in as many games.
This was properly struck, LoMo.
WATCH: https://t.co/n280zV0YCc#RaysUp pic.twitter.com/igzVYxqMxU
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) September 3, 2016
Tampa Bay poured it on in the seventh. Luke Maile started the rally with a “Game 162” homer that barely cleared the wall in left off Francisco Liriano. Then after Forsythe reached on a rare Donaldson error, Kevin Kiermaier tripled to right-center, putting Tampa Bay up by four. Two batters later, Brad Miller homered to right off Ryan Tepera, making it 8-2.
After this 2-run homer, Brad has 29 RBI in his last 29 games.
WATCH: https://t.co/ALSlctUimW#RaysUp pic.twitter.com/jnTwEq9TON
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) September 3, 2016
After Danny Farquhar put up a scoreless sixth in relief of Cobb, Kevin Jepsen did the same in the seventh. Eddie Gamboa, making his big league debut, loaded the bases on a single and two walks, however, Brad Boxberger limited the damage to just one run by collecting an RBI groundout and a strikeout, ending the inning with the Rays up by five. Finally, Ryan Garton worked a perfect ninth.
The New What Next
Blake Snell (4-7, 3.56 ERA) will take the mound opposite of Marco Estrada (8-6, 3.37 ERA) this afternoon. Snell’s shortest big league start came on August 10th against the Blue Jays in Toronto, when he posted just 1-2/3 innings of work, allowing five runs and walking four, including the last three batters he faced. Estrada was 2-2 with a 3.37 ERA in five August starts. He is 1-2 with a 1.24 ERA in four starts against Tampa Bay. You can read more about Snell in our series preview.
Rays 9/3/16 Starting Lineup
Forsythe 2B
Kiermaier CF
Longoria 3B
Miller 1B
Duffy SS
Morrison DH
Franklin RF
Dickerson LF
Wilson C
Snell LHP
Noteworthiness
— Cobb told Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) he felt good and was most pleased about getting in the flow of the game, while not thinking about mechanics, his elbow, etc.