Colton Cowser’s home runs, Cole Irvin’s pitching lead first-place Tides to win in Jacksonville

Colton Cowser keeps mashing, and Cole Irvin is starting to resemble the pitcher the Baltimore Orioles sought in a January trade.

Cowser belted two home runs — one on the game’s first pitch — and a single for Norfolk in the Tides’ 3-1 triumph Thursday against the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp before 5,890 fans in Florida.

Meanwhile, after early-season struggles led to Irvin’s demotion to Triple-A, the left-hander improved to 4-1 with Norfolk by pitching seven effective innings. He gave up five hits and one walk on 96 pitches, striking out four, as the Tides (26-9) showed why they’re leading the International League.

Irvin lowered his Norfolk ERA to 3.19, including 2.41 in his last three starts, before Darwinzon Hernandez and Eduard Bazardo completed the triumph with a scoreless inning apiece.

It’s quite an encouraging trend for Irvin, who was 0-2 with a 10.66 ERA in three starts for Baltimore. He pitched 359 innings in the past two seasons for Oakland, going 19-28 with a 4.11 ERA for the struggling Athletics.

Cowser belted Devin Smeltzer’s initial pitch over the wall in right-center field. The Shrimp (18-16) pulled even in the second inning when Jerar Encarnacion crossed the plate on Jake Mangum’s infield single, but Cowser changed that with a homer to left-center in the third inning. It was his seventh home run of the year.

The score remained 2-1 until Joey Ortiz clubbed a home run to right-center off Nic Enright in the eighth.

The victory improved the Tides to 2-1 in the six-game series against the Miami Marlins’ top farm club, which will continue with a 7:05 p.m. game Friday. Norfolk’s Chris Vallimont (1-0. 2.66) is scheduled to oppose Ronald Bolaños (1-2, 3.71) in a clash of right-handers.

Before the game, the Orioles optioned left-handed pitcher Drew Rom to Triple-A Norfolk. He did not get to make his MLB debut while on Baltimore’s active roster.