Seven innings seems to be the right amount for Alex Cobb.
Cobb worked a strong seven for the fourth consecutive game and picked up his third consecutive win Monday as the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Mariners 4-1 in Seattle.
In doing so, he extended the Rays’ winning streak to a season-high seven games and continued their run of excellent starting pitching.
“It’s fun,” Cobb said. “We’re having a great time. Everyone is doing well so everyone is in high spirits. We’re on a good roll right now.”
Though Cobb may lose his place in the rotation with Jeff Niemann set for a late-August return from a broken leg that has sidelined him since mid-May, he is at least making it interesting, improving to 7-8 with a 4.08 ERA.
Cobb said he was more impressed that he worked the seven innings. Until this run, he never had more than two back-to-back starts of seven or more innings.
“That’s the biggest thing as a pitcher, no matter what the outcome of the game, you want to eat up innings,” he said. “So being able to go out there and set it up for (Joel) Peralta and (Fernando) Rodney to close the door, it’s a good feeling walking off.”
The two relievers each pitched a shutout inning to close out the victory.