Marlins lose series to Phillies after pulling Cabrera too soon

[Kevin Barral]

MIAMI, FL—The Miami Marlins are the only team in baseball that has not had a starting pitcher complete seven innings of work this season. That remained true on Thursday night as manager Clayton McCullough took the ball away from Edward Cabrera with one out in the top of the seventh inning, only 82 pitches into a scoreless outing. Everything went downhill after the that and the Marlins went on to lose by a final score of 2-1.

Cabrera went 6 ⅓ innings allowing two hits, walking three and striking out five. He is only the second Marlins starting pitcher this season to record an out in the seventh inning. He joined Max Meyer, who did so on May 9 against the Chicago White Sox.

"I wanted to stay, but the manager makes the decisions," Cabrera said postgame via an interpreter. "He's the boss, so you gotta respect that."

After taking Cabrera out, McCullough summoned lefty Cade Gibson from the bullpen. With Alec Bohm on first, he surrendered a base hit to Max Kepler to put runners on the corners, then threw a wild pitch moving Kepler to second. Otto Kemp was hit by a pitch to load the bases and a Bryson Stott fielder's choice tied the game at one apiece (the run was charged to Cabrera).

"Cade's been great for us and with Kepler coming back up there at that particular time in the game, Kepler's third time coming up, just liked that matchup there to get Cade in the game and have him and a run of hitters to give him the best chance to get us out of that particular inning," said manager Clayton McCullough. "Thought that Eddie certainly threw the ball terrifically to that point and I liked Cade coming in there with Kepler hitting."

Although Gibson had the platoon advantage against Kepler, Cabrera has posted reverse splits in 2025, performing better against lefties than righties in terms of strikeout rate and OPS allowed.

In the top of the eighth inning, Kyle Schwarber took Anthony Bender deep for his 23rd home run of the season, giving the Phillies a 2-1 lead.

 

Cabrera generated 14 whiffs, six with the curveball and five with the slider. He went sinker-heavy, with that pitch averaging 97.5 mph and topping out at 98.9 mph. The changeup, which has been his most-used pitch this season, was only thrown 12% of the time.

"I think he did a good job taking some shots in, which opened up breaking balls away, kept the ball off the barrel as far he was," said McCullough. "Other than a couple walks on some of the lefties, some side misses, he was competitive in close pitches. Looking at Edward as we continue to go through this season, just another really encouraging step."

Cabrera was given some run support in the bottom of the fifth inning thanks to a Nick Fortes RBI infield single. Going into Thursday's game, Fortes was sporting a .919 OPS in the month of June. That was all the Marlins were able to get against Phillies starter Cristopher Sánchez, who gave his team eight innings of work, striking out four.

"It's the same thing as Cabbie—when a guy's got his good stuff, it makes for tough at-bats," said Fortes postgame. "You just have to compete and try to move the ball forward."

With the loss, the Marlins fall to 29-44 on the season and dropped three out of four to the Phillies.

Next, they will welcome the Atlanta Braves to town for a three-game set. Janson Junk will take the mound for his first start of the season. For the Braves, Didier Fuentes, a 20-year-old righty who is the Braves number ten prospect according to MLB Pipeline, will make his Major League debut.

View full article

[Leo Armbrister]

What is wrong with Bender. He has given up home runs in at least two games recently. We need him to be better. 

[THOMAS JOSEPH]

What's up, guys? I returned from Brazil late Wednesday, slept a ton, and was anxious to see my first Marlins game in a few months on Thursday night!  I tried to keep up with FOF posts and other social media. Anyway, Cabrera did not disappoint! I am saddened that he was removed with such a head of steam. Boring, predictable, and uninspiring. Things will never improve in the per-start innings department if we continue to adhere mindlessly to analytics. Challenge these guys, for crying out loud. Checking the data screen before taking a freaking leak is boring, especially with a developing team that needs to stretch, learn, and adapt. What is the goal - to finish 22 games under .500 instead of 25? Again, uninspiring, boring, tedious, and unproductive. There's so much fertile soil here with some young firecrackers trying to establish themselves, but this g.d. limp-wristed, seemingly petrified-of-challenges crap chips away at my interest in baseball. Speaking of timidity, will our pitchers and field management ever develop some cajones?  Heaven forbid we move someone off the plate. 

[THOMAS JOSEPH]

Sorry to add a bit more to the rant, but...

"Cade's been great for us and with Kepler coming back up there at that particular time in the game, Kepler's third time coming up, just liked that matchup there to get Cade in the game and have him and a run of hitters to give him the best chance to get us out of that particular inning,"

Horseshit. 

[Shawn]

I quite honestly just can’t stand watching Clayton manage this team. It seems to me every instinct the man has is wrong. He’s to dependent on analytics instead of watching a reacting to how his players are performing. Cabby gave up two singles to the same guy, third time through or not at 82 pitches he earned the right to at minimum finish the 7th. The bullpen is overworked due to the fact he won’t let anyone other than Sandy go past 80 pitches.