Cabrera shows signs of usual, healthy self with solid outing

ST. LOUIS -- If there’s any silver lining from the Marlins’ tough 5-2 loss to the Cardinals in 10 innings on Tuesday night at Busch Stadium, it’s the performance of right-hander Edward Cabrera.

Hours before the game, Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said it would be awesome to get Cabrera through five innings. With the 25-year-old scheduled to make his first start since June 13 after missing time with a right shoulder impingement, he would be limited to 80-85 pitches. But Cabrera needed just 70 pitches to get through five frames, so Schumaker sent him back out for the sixth.

Brendan Donovan greeted Cabrera with a leadoff homer on a 2-1 hanging slider, one of only two hits permitted by Cabrera, who took a no-no into the fifth. He struck out six and walked three. His velocity was on par with his season averages.

“I see this outing and I evaluate this outing as a good one,” Cabrera said via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. “I'm just very happy to be back here and being able to help the team in any way I can.”

Cabrera’s return couldn’t come at a better time, as Miami matched its season high with a fifth straight defeat. The club has not won a game since the second half began, and Philadelphia bumped Miami out of a National League Wild Card spot for the first time since May 26.

Over their last 15 games, in which they have dropped 10, the Marlins’ pitching staff has a 5.46 ERA -- 25th in the Majors. The rotation remains without rookie righty Eury Pérez (optioned to Double-A Pensacola to monitor workload) and lefty Trevor Rogers (right lat strain). The club utilized veteran right-hander Johnny Cueto out of the bullpen over the weekend in his first appearance off the 60-day injured list.

“His command was off a little bit,” Schumaker said of Cabrera. “You expect that. He had a couple sim games because of rainouts and that type of stuff, so not too much real action. I thought his slider was good. His changeup at times was really, really good. His velocity was holding up 96-97 [mph] throughout five innings, and he threw his curveball and slider when he needed it. Healthy Cabrera is really what we need, and he showed signs of who he was before he got hurt. And so moving forward, it's great to have him back.”

With a little more stability in the rotation, the Marlins now need to turn around their fortunes on offense. Miami left 11 left on base by going 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position. Since the second half began, the club is batting .189 in those situations -- 26th in MLB.

All-Star Luis Arraez isn’t immune to the team-wide struggles. Since his five-hit performance on June 19, he is a worldly 30-for-96 (.313) over his past 24 games. On Tuesday, he produced a sacrifice fly in the fifth but struck out in the seventh and ninth with a runner at third and less than two outs.

“It's frustrating because we lost a lot of games, but we just need to stay together and come back tomorrow,” Arraez said. “Today we played good. We got a lot of runners on base, but we are human, especially me. Struck out two times, first time in the year. I'm human. So I try to do my little things. They pitched really good. We lost the game. But tomorrow's another game. And we need to just come back strong.”

Then there’s the misplay that led to Nolan Arenado’s walk-off three-run homer against A.J. Puk.

With runners on first and second with one out in the 10th, Lars Nootbaar grounded to third base, where Jean Segura tried turning a potential inning-ending double play. Due to a shift and screen by the runner, shortstop Jon Berti took too long to cover second base, so Segura had to hold up before throwing. Arraez wound up receiving the throw, but only one out was recorded on the play. Arenado then made the Marlins pay two pitches later by taking Puk’s elevated fastball deep.

“I don't think it's a mental thing,” Schumaker said. “I think that they go about their routine and their work the same way. We were winning games that we're losing now. It's just kind of part of the season where you have winning streaks, you have losing streaks. It's just kind of how you bounce back and how you get out of these things. Holding leads is going to be the way to win these games.”