Touching 99, Cabrera shows potential in debut

PHILADELPHIA -- Génesis Cabrera's Major League debut may not have gone exactly as he had hoped, but he provided possibly the lone bright spot for the Cardinals in Wednesday's 11-4 loss to the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.

Cabrera struck out the side on just 11 pitches in the second inning, finishing off all three hitters with his electric fastball.

"I felt great with the fastball," Cabrera said through a translator. "I was just trying to throw the ball where [catcher Matt] Wieters was asking me to, and tried to establish my fastball early in the game, so that I could work with my secondary pitches."

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After missing with his first pitch of the frame to Scott Kingery, Cabrera got the Phillies' center fielder to swing through a changeup, foul off a 95-mph fastball and whiff at a 97-mph fastball above the zone for strike three.

Next up, Cabrera struck out Maikel Franco on three pitches, the last of which hit 99 mph on the radar gun. Cabrera then made quick work of Aaron Nola, who struck out looking at a 98-mph fastball on the high, outside corner.

Sure, one of the strikeouts came against the opposing pitcher, but another came against one of the league’s hardest players to strike out in Franco. The Phillies’ third baseman entered the night having struck out in just 12.5 percent of his plate appearances, the sixth-lowest mark among any hitter with at least 200 plate appearances this season.

"This guy’s got a big arm, a live arm," manager Mike Shildt said of Cabrera. "He’s athletic, loose and his stuff is good. He was everything that was advertised from our player development department."

Unfortunately for Cabrera and the Cardinals, that dazzling second inning wasn't enough to keep the team from dropping to 7-18 this month with its third straight loss -- one that Shildt said was "just ugly."

The Cards gave up a pair of unearned runs in the first inning after right fielder Dexter Fowler misplayed a routine fly ball that allowed the Phillies to load the bases with one out. Cabrera then struck out J.T. Realmuto, which would have ended the inning, before conceding a two-run single to Cesar Hernandez.

Cabrera's night came to an end with two outs and a runner on in the fourth, when he was replaced by Michael Wacha, whom Cabrera had supplanted in the starting rotation. Wacha not only allowed the inherited runner to cross the plate, but he conceded six runs off five hits and three walks in just one inning of work. That included a trio of home runs to Kingery, Franco and Andrew McCutchen.

"Didn’t go well," Shildt said of Wacha's first relief appearance since Sept. 26, 2016. "It looked like the ball was up a little bit, a little flatter. They put swings on it. Couldn’t get his secondary pitches going, and they made him pay for the mistakes."

Though Shildt has been optimistic that his club will rediscover the form that led to a National League-best 19-10 record through April, the skipper admitted that Wednesday's loss was one of the few where St. Louis struggled in all aspects.

"There’s two ways you can go with it: You can be patient or you can panic," Shildt said. "That’s not to say, don’t make changes or you can’t make changes. We’ve made changes. … But I also know this. If we start to just wholesale do things differently, away from things that we know fundamentally work, that’s panic.

"It doesn’t mean changes can’t be made, doesn’t mean changes don’t need to be made. Static is not acceptable with what we’re doing."

As for whether one of the latest changes -- moving Cabrera into the rotation -- will stick for the time being, that remains to be seen.

"I tried to compete, I tried to do my best," said Cabrera, who allowed five runs (three earned) over 3 2/3 innings, while striking out five and walking two. "Of course I wanted to do great, but the long-term goal is just to stay here in the Major Leagues."

Shildt said the club hadn't made an immediate decision on whether Cabrera will start again on Tuesday against the Reds.

"He represented himself well," Shildt said. "We’ll have to evaluate it fairly soon, but we’ll do that."