WASHINGTON -- Edward Cabrera has kicked off the final month of the regular season in dominant fashion: A 0.00 ERA in two starts.

Cabrera cruised through six innings on Friday night at Nationals Park, but a lack of offense and three errors (two from Cabrera himself) sank the Marlins in their 4-1 loss to the Nats.

“That was the most dominant outing of his season -- [maybe] of his career,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “A lot of first-pitch strikes, 80% [of outs] on the ground, strikeouts, swing-and-miss. We just didn't play clean behind him. He didn't play clean himself, honestly, with the PFPs [pitcher fielding practice]. But there's a lot to be proud of what he did the last couple of starts, and the way he's trending towards the end of the season.”

Cabrera agreed. It helped that he was focused on attacking the zone -- which also aided his consistency. The results? Two unearned runs on one hit and one walk with nine strikeouts over 100 pitches.

Those two unearned runs came in the first inning, when Cabrera missed catching a throw from first baseman Jake Burger to get the forceout at first base, which could have been the third out of the inning. Cabrera said the play sped up on him, but he made a concerted effort to calm down to continue with the rest of the outing. It worked, and he struck out Joey Gallo to end the frame. (All three outs in the first inning came via strikeouts.)

Despite the first-inning hiccup, Cabrera worked quickly and efficiently on the mound and he did not let his mistakes outshine his overall performance.

“He usually lets that get away from him -- that type of game,” Schumaker said. “He controlled it tonight. He controlled the emotions one pitch at a time. He got through the air and it says a lot because it was self-inflicted. He was one that made a couple of errors, and he was really upset about it. [It was a] teaching moment after dropping it, kind of putting his head down and letting another run score. He probably won't ever do that again in his career.”

Cabrera had one last miscue before his night was over, when Washington shortstop Nasim Nuñez softly grounded the ball along the first-base line with two outs in the fifth inning. As pitchers practice during PFPs, Cabrera quickly made his way over -- but he missed the ball as he slid on the dirt. Nuñez reached first base, and Cabrera openly showed his frustration.

He did not let those emotions linger long, though. Much as he did in the first inning, Cabrera quickly moved on to the task at hand: battling MLB’s No. 1 prospect, Dylan Crews.

“For me at the moment, it was something that already happened,” Cabrera said in Spanish. “So I needed to focus on the other batters and continue through the game.”

Cabrera won the battle vs. Crews, getting him to chase a 98.8 mph sinker (the seventh pitch of the at-bat) for an inning-ending strikeout. Cabrera lifted his hands in celebration before heading to the dugout. He carried that energy into his final frame of the night, retiring the side in order.

“He’s just a great pitcher, a great pitcher,” Crews said. “He had all of his stuff -- he had a great four-seam and a two-seam, and then he had a changeup that was good off of that. He gave us trouble. Other than the first at-bat, he gave us trouble through seven innings. So hats off to him, he was a great pitcher tonight.”

Cabrera’s outing was his second consecutive scoreless start, after he held the Phillies scoreless over seven innings (three hits and one walk) on Sunday -- after he missed his scheduled start on Sept. 6 with a migraine.

The goal for Cabrera is to finish the season strong to head into the offseason with some momentum. To Schumaker, six-inning outings are to be expected from Cabrera, once the righty gets over a mental hurdle.

“He's not content,” Schumaker said. “He wants to get there, he wants to be an ace of his staff. He has the stuff to be an ace. … So now it's the mental side, and we thought he's turned a corner before. We think he's doing it again. So hopefully he can end up trending this way -- because that's real power stuff, and he made a good lineup [groundout] and [strike out] quite often. He should be proud of himself.”