On the edge of the playoff picture with a little more than two weeks to play, this weekend is contender or pretender weekend for the rebuilding Orioles. It is not off to the ideal start.

Making his first start since going on the injured list for undisclosed reasons, Alex Cobb allowed three homers over the first two innings and the Orioles did not register a hit until the fifth off Gerrit Cole in the first game of Friday’s doubleheader against the Yankees. The result was a 6-0 loss at Yankee Stadium that dropped the Orioles 2 1/2 games back of the Yanks for the final American League Wild Card spot with 17 games to play.

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“That was Gerrit Cole,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “He had everything going. He was throwing 98-99 [mph] in the seventh and had his offspeed stuff working. He was just a great pitcher today.”

Pitching on 12 days of rest, Cobb allowed a leadoff homer to DJ LeMahieu and a two-run shot to Brett Gardner in the first. Kyle Higashioka then hit another two-run shot an inning later off Cobb, and the Yankees added a run in the sixth off Thomas Eshelman to provide the final margin. Cole held the Orioles to three baserunners across seven shutout innings, striking out nine.

“What Gerrit did, that was what the Yankees signed him to do today,” Cobb said. “That is what the stuff, when he’s on, is going to produce. You just have to hope he’s off a little bit.”

Speaking after the game, Cobb said he was sidelined due to flu-like symptoms but never tested positive for COVID-19. He said he tested negative seven or eight times before being cleared to return, even venturing to a local park to play catch in between outings. Besides that casual throwing, the last time Cobb pitched professionally was Aug. 29, when he surrendered five runs in a loss to the Blue Jays.

“It was definitely something I would show up during the regular season and keep getting my work in with,” Cobb said. “But I understand it, too. … I had to make sure some symptoms subsided before I returned.”

Before opening this four-game set in the Bronx, Hyde relished the opportunity his young Orioles had to knock down the playoff door, especially against a Yankees team that entered Friday losers of 15 of its previous 21 games. The Orioles came in winners of six of their last nine, averaging 6.2 runs per game during that stretch. It also included taking three of four from the Yankees in Baltimore last weekend.

“It’s going to be a dogfight this weekend, and I think our guys are up for it,” the manager said.

The Orioles also had already tagged Cole for eight runs in 12 2/3 innings this year entering Game 1. Then Friday happened. Cole retired 11 of his first 12 batters and did not surrender a hit until Hanser Alberto’s single in the fifth. It ended up being a tidy two-hour, two-minute affair, and the only start this season in which Cole did not surrender a homer.