Cabrera loses 'rhythm' in 4th in loss to Mets

NEW YORK -- Marlins rookie right-hander Edward Cabrera has rhythm -- whether on the mound or on the dance floor.

Cabrera maintained that tempo through the first three innings of Tuesday’s nightcap of an unconventional doubleheader. But then Cabrera’s cleat got stuck, causing him to tumble off the Citi Field mound in a 3-1 loss to the Mets in seven innings after the Marlins dropped the first game in walk-off fashion.

“I felt well to finish the evening, but I do feel like I lost a lot of the rhythm I had,” Cabrera said via an interpreter. “I think I had a good rhythm, and I totally lost it after that. But I did feel well to finish the inning.”

Entering the fourth inning, MLB Pipeline’s No. 30 overall prospect was cruising, inducing double plays in the second and third and needing just 33 pitches. But with two outs and a runner at first, Cabrera slipped on his first offering to Michael Conforto. Manager Don Mattingly and head athletic trainer Gene Basham came out to the mound to check on Cabrera, who threw one warmup pitch before staying in the game.

Conforto then sent Cabrera's middle-middle changeup deep to right field for a two-run shot. The Mets added another run in the frame when Javier Báez scored on Jeff McNeil’s RBI double to make it 3-0.

“I will say that with the rhythm, I was keeping my pitches on the low part of the zone,” Cabrera said. “When I have runners on base, I look for that position of the strike zone, so I can get a double play. I think to maintain that pace, you've got to keep working. It's a matter of attacking the zone. Hitters will get out by themselves, and just kind of attack the zone and keep working on it.”

There have been several themes in the 23-year-old right-hander’s two MLB starts:

• three homers -- all on the changeup
• five double plays
• four strikeouts through 40 total batters faced
• efficiency with 57 pitches over his first six innings in his MLB debut and 53 through four on Tuesday

According to MLB Pipeline, Cabrera has found more consistent velocity separation between his heater and changeup. On Tuesday, he turned to the changeup the most (37.7%). When Cabrera executes the pitch, it leads to weak contact. When he doesn’t, outcomes like the Conforto homer happen.

“That's really where Edward probably has gotten hurt so far,” Mattingly said. “When he does get hurt, he throws that power change a lot like Sandy [Alcantara] and Pablo [López]. And when that pitch stays up, it's really more of a flat fastball. It's taking 4-5-6 mph off of it, kind of sits right into the bat speed. So that's a pitch that all those guys want to have depth with it, they want it to go down, they want it to look like fastballs and end up going down late. I think the ones that Edward throws and stays up are always going to be dangerous if they're up in the zone.”

That fourth inning would be the last for Cabrera, because his turn in the order came up with two runners on in the fifth. Jesús Aguilar knocked a pinch-hit RBI double, but Isan Díaz grounded into an inning-ending 1-2-3 double play.

Decisions like that are a balancing act for Mattingly and the coaching staff. Cabrera is in The Show so the organization can see development with MLB experience. At the same time, the ballclub doesn’t want to concede games.

“That is the exact conversation that [bench coach James Rowson] and I are having over there,” Mattingly said. “It's like, ‘Do you let him go and let him hit?’ But it's also a bad message to your club a little bit. Everyone understands that we want to see Edward grow, and you know what? He's going to grow from four innings tonight, and you want him to keep going and get back out there. But the message on the other side of that if you let him hit is that we're not trying to win games.

“... There's a fine line here at the Major League level, and especially like you said, with the National League game. You're down, we were hitting in our fifth, and in a seven-inning game, you're not going to get many more chances, and so we felt that was a great chance for Agui, and we owe it really to our players that we have to try to win.”