Another short Cabrera outing dooms Marlins in series opener vs Phillies. Takeaways from the loss

For a second consecutive start, Miami Marlins right-handed pitcher Edward Cabrera failed to give the Marlins needed length.

Last time out against the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday, his outing was cut short after two innings due to a recurring blister issue on his right middle finger.

On Monday against the Philadelphia Phillies, he failed to record an out in the fourth inning after struggling with command.

And it cost them dearly in a 4-2 loss to the Phillies to begin a four-game series at loanDepot park. Miami, which had won three of its past four games, falls to 57-50 on the season. Philadelphia improves to 57-49.

Cabrera threw 76 pitches against 16 batters on Monday. He walked six, tied for the second-most this season, and gave up two hits while striking out three. He left after allowing the only two batters he faced in the fourth inning to reach base.

Nearly half of Cabrera’s pitches thrown Monday — 37 of 76 — were balls.

“I was a little lost there with the control and command of my pitches,” Cabrera said.

Cabrera said he felt fine in his pregame bullpen session before things went awry in the game.

Even with his command issues, Cabrera managed to navigate out of jams in each of the first three innings — stranding both batters he walked in the first inning, getting a double play and a strikeout in the second after starting the frame with two walks, and stranding two more in the third.

He didn’t get the chance to do the same in the fourth when he started the frame with a leadoff single to Trea Turner and a walk to Brandon Marsh.

“It’s frustrating because Cabrera’s got such good stuff, probably the best stuff on the staff,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “That was tough because he felt really good. Health-wise, he’s great. He was just frustrated because he just couldn’t get the ball over the plate.”

At his best, Cabrera can be a front-line starter. His fastball averages 96 mph and his changeup and curveball both induce high swing-and-miss rates.

But he hasn’t been at his best for the most part this season. He has pitched beyond the fifth inning in just four of his 17 starts, missed the final four weeks before the All-Star Break with a right shoulder impingement and has dealt with that recurring blister.

With Miami vying for a playoff spot and now in the midst of a month-long stretch that very likely will make or break their season, they can’t afford too many outings like this.

So what do the Marlins do?

The trade deadline is at 6 p.m. Tuesday, and Miami could dip into the starting pitcher market if it chooses. The likes of the Detroit Tigers’ Michael Lorenzen and Eduardo Rodriguez as well as the St. Louis Cardinals’ Jack Flaherty are among the possible pitchers Miami could pursue.

But Schumaker, who has said multiple times leading into the trade deadline that it’s not his place to talk publicly about what moves the front office should make, defended the group that he has.

“We’re at the point in the season where it’s pretty much August 1 and what we have right now is good enough for me,” Schumaker said. “These pitchers are good. Cabby’s good. I mean, he’s throwing 97 miles an hour and with a really effective changeup and really good curveball. He just needs to get in the strike zone. It’s not like he hasn’t done it before. That’s what I think is frustrating. He’s had some really good starts. ... He’s just gotta get in the strike zone.”

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Edward Cabrera’s short start meant a lot of work for the bullpen

Because of Cabrera’s latest limited outing, it forced Schumaker to use his bullpen to cover the final six innings on Monday, putting the relief corps in a tough spot for the rest of the series and beyond — Miami plays each of the next nine days before it has another off day.

Steven Okert pitched the first two, allowing both runners he inherited in the fourth to score on a Johan Rojas double, to get them through the fifth with the game tied 2-2. A.J. Puk then pitched a perfect sixth before the Phillies scored one run apiece against Tanner Scott in the seventh and Huascar Brazoban in the eighth. Brazoban threw 43 pitches over the eighth and ninth innings so the Marlins didn’t have to use closer David Robertson while down two runs.

JT Chargois and Jorge Lopez were presumably unavailable or only going to be used as a last resort after pitching back-to-back days on Saturday and Sunday.

Miami is expecting to get at least one reinforcement back on Tuesday with left-handed pitcher Andrew Nardi slated to come off the injured list.

A big Jorge Soler home run, and then nothing else

The Marlins opened scoring in the first with a towering, 415-foot, two-run home run from Jorge Soler against Taijuan Walker. It was Soler’s 25th home run of the season but just his second in 14 games played since the All-Star Break, a stretch in which he was hitting just .154 (8 for 52) with 20 strikeouts entering Monday.

Miami’s offense did nothing after that.

The Marlins tallied seven total hits — three from Luis Arraez (his MLB-leading 16th three-hit game), two from Soler and one apiece from Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Nick Fortes — and two walks but went 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position and left seven on base.

Monday is just the start of the pivotal stretch

The Marlins’ series opener against the Phillies was the first of 22 consecutive games against teams in contention for the playoffs.

After their four-game set against Philadelphia, the Marlins go on the road for three apiece against the Texas Rangers and Cincinnati Reds, host the New York Yankees and Houston Astros for three games each, and then have another six-game road trip against the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres.