Cabrera showcases growth and confidence in clutch start to even series

MIAMI -- The Marlins have become accustomed to winning when Edward Cabrera toes the rubber in the month of May.

And Saturday afternoon at loanDepot park, the squad won its fourth consecutive game in which Cabrera started, collecting a 1-0 victory over the Giants in the series’ second game. Cabrera tallied five strikeouts, while giving up six hits and walking three in 5 2/3 innings pitched (24 batters faced).

“Cabby’s” clutch pitching, a solid bullpen effort, plus a couple of acrobatic catches from outfielders Heriberto Hernandez (who made his second start Saturday) and Dane Myers keyed the team’s win, helping it even the series.

Offensively, Javier Sanoja plated Miami’s lone run off 2021 American League Cy Young Award winner Robbie Ray, smoking a single up the middle in the second inning to score Myers from second. It was the 14th RBI of the season for Sanoja, who also had an outfield assist in his second start at center.

Cabrera had a 2.53 ERA through his first four starts in May, most recently earning his first win of the season in a 10-strikeout effort against the Angels on Sunday.

His momentum was undeniable heading into the affair, but early on, it looked as if San Francisco could put an end to Cabrera’s hot streak. It got two men on base quickly courtesy of consecutive singles from Heliot Ramos and Jung Hoo Lee. Ramos moved to third on a sac fly, before Lee stole second. Matt Chapman walked shortly thereafter.

But Cabrera worked his way out of the jam with poise, retiring back-to-back hitters via strikeout to end the first.

“It was a really long first inning for me,” Cabrera, who threw 30 pitches in the frame, said via interpreter Luis Dorante. “After I got the third out, what I was thinking was once I get back, I have to attack. It doesn’t matter if they hit me, I just gotta go out, attack and get as many outs as I can.”

Cabrera's aggressiveness paid dividends. He recorded a clean second inning and faced just three batters in the third, escaping on a 5-4-3 double play.

After an infield error allowed Mike Yastrzesmki to reach, Hernandez pulled off a magnificent grab to rob Tyler Fitzgerald of a two-run homer in left.

“When I saw the ball, I just turned really fast and just started running as much as I could, cause I knew the ball was carrying it a lot,” Hernandez said. “… I think that was the least I could do [to help Cabrera].”

Cabrera went on to retire five of the next six batters he faced, before allowing a pair of baserunners with two outs in the sixth. Ronny Henriquez closed the door on the inning though, striking out Fitzgerald on a slider.

Myers soared through the air to make a gem of a catch in the seventh, and the combination of Anthony Bender and Calvin Faucher closed the door on San Francisco in the eighth and ninth.

“Cabby was terrific,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “His ability that first inning to navigate through and get through that unscathed was big for us.

“The strike throwing as a whole [has been different for him]. We talked a lot about Cabby even going back to Spring Training. We all felt that there was a much better performance-wise … that Cabby has not shown to this point. I think he’s on a great run right now where he’s on the attack, he’s got a lot of confidence in his stuff and ability to go attack the strike zone with multiple offerings. … And then the time where he’s had his back against the wall … he just buckles down and continues to pound it.”

Cabrera was one of the Marlins’ most highly touted prospects in the late 2010s after signing with Miami as an international free agent in 2015. But consistency and injuries have hampered him up to this point.

Now, it appears as if the 27-year-old is putting things together and morphing into the dominant workhorse Miami envisioned him to be.

“We’re continuing to see a young player maturing here,” McCullough said, “and learning how to navigate through innings, and go pitch-to-pitch. And it really just comes down to the commitment he has to pounding and filling up the strike zone.”

“I always have that confidence,” Cabrera said. “Every time I go out there, I trust in all of my pitches. I feel good, I feel healthy -- which is the most important part -- and feeling great.”