San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Alex Cobb #38 throws against the Seattle Mariners in the third inning of their MLB game at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, July 5, 2023. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
SAN FRANCISCO — Trying Wednesday to avoid matching their longest losing streak of the season, the Giants needed a stopper.
Enter Alex Cobb.
With six shutout innings in their series finale against the Seattle Mariners, Cobb willed the Giants to a 2-0 win, snapping their skid at four games. Camilo Doval, who allowed four runs and took the loss in his last outing, ran into no such issues while recording his National League-leading 25th save.
Cobb struck out seven, one away from a season-high, and didn’t issue a walk. The Giants have won nine of the past 10 games he has started.
The Giants’ offense was lifeless as ever since the end of their 10-game win streak almost two weeks ago. Since the streak came to an end June 22, San Francisco’s on-base-plus-slugging percentage as a team ranks second-worst in the majors, behind only the A’s.
Facing veteran lefty Tommy Milone, the Giants provided Cobb only two runs of support by the time he left the game after six scoreless innings.
Milone, 36, had a 6.05 ERA in 23 MLB appearances since the start of 2020 entering Wednesday. Without Mitch Haniger or Thairo Estrada, both out until at least August with fractures suffered on hit-by-pitches, the Giants were down two of their top right-handed bats.
They were aided by Seattle’s All-Star center fielder, Julio Rodriguez, who got turned around on a routine fly ball to the track from LaMonte Wade Jr. in the fifth inning. The ball glanced off Rodriguez’s glove and fell to the dirt, allowing Austin Slater to score and Wilmer Flores to chug into third base with one out.
Flores contributed three hits and reached third twice but was stranded there both times. His first of three singles advanced Brandon Crawford to third with one out in the third inning, putting him in position to score the Giants’ first run on a sacrifice fly from Wade.
Crawford hit a well-struck double to left-center with two outs in the seventh but was stranded there. The Giants did not record a hit in eight at-bats with runners in scoring position and left 11 on base.
The Giants’ young center fielder, Luis Matos, reached base three times, including a one-out triple in the sixth but was left stranded on third. Matos appeared to have robbed his counterpart of extra bases in the top half of the inning with a spectacular catch but lost control of the ball as he crashed into the wall.
Rodriguez reached third base with one out after Cobb was called for a balk. But Cobb generated a comebacker off the bat of Mike Ford and looked Rodriguez back to the bag before firing to first for the second out of the inning. He was out of his only sticky situation of the night in no time with another ground ball to third baseman J.D. Davis, who scooped the slow-roller and fired sidearm to first for the final out of the inning.
All but two of Cobb’s 18 outs came via strikeout (seven) or ground ball (nine).
While the six hardest-hit balls of the night came off Seattle bats, the Mariners did not get another runner to third base in six innings against Cobb.
Originally published at Evan Webeck