A Glimpse Of The Future

BY SCOTT MORGANROTH

During my last two games at LoanDepot Park, it was good seeing “A Glimpse Of The Future” with a couple of young hurlers on the hill.

Let’s begin with Edward Cabrera, no relation to future Hall of Famer, Miguel Cabrera. 

The main connection to these two Cabrera’s is they began their careers for the Florida/Miami Marlins. Miguel Cabrera did win a World Series Championship in 2003.

Edward Cabrera made his debut for the Marlins on Wednesday, August 25 when the Marlins were riding an eight game losing streak. 

Miami needed a spark on this night, and Edward delivered that as the first pitch he delivered was a strike then the next one was a foul ball behind the screen. The first hitter he faced grounded out third to first, 5-3 and if you’re scoring, it was Brian Anderson to Jesus Aguilar.

Cabrera’s first at bat was a fly out to right field.

Cabrera proceeded to pitch six clean innings until he ran into trouble in the seventh inning where he gave up three runs, two were home runs coming from Yadiel Hernandez and Josh Bell.

Cabrera’s line score was 6.1 innings, four hits, three runs, three earned runs, two strikeouts and three walks. He threw 78 pitches, for 50 strikes, eight ground balls, three fly balls.

He left the game tied 3-3. 

Nevertheless, it was a great first act for Cabrera. 

The Marlins went on to win the contest 4-3 over the Washington Nationals, and he earned a no-decision. 

Jorge Alfaro hit a game winning single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th inning and Miami did snap its eight game losing streak.

When Cabrera left the game, he received a nice applause from the crowd of 6,237.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Four days later on Sunday August 29, I saw another young arm and he’s a local kid that played for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.

The pitcher I’m talking about is Jesus Luzardo, who entered the game 4-7 with a 7.91 ERA.

On July 28, 2021, he was acquired by the Miami Marlins in exchange for Starling Marte and cash considerations. 

The Marlins made this trade because they were unable to reach a contract extension with Marte, who figures to be a rental for the A’s.

What did we see from Luzardo during this Sunday afternoon contest?

A nice performance as he went on to tie his career high of eight strikeouts.

Luzardo pitched six innings, gave up one hit and was replaced in the top of the seventh inning after hitting Joey Votto.

Luzardo’ a final numbers were extremely impressive!

He pitched six innings, gave up one hit, didn’t allow any runs, struck out eight, and gave up one walk, plus the hit batter. He threw 94 pitches, 56 were strikes, with three ground ball outs and six fly ball outs. Luzardo improved his record to 5-7 after this excellent performance.

He struck out Votto twice.

The Marlins won this contest 2-1 in a game that took 2:36 to complete. 

There wasn’t any offense as the Reds only amassed two hits, while the Marlins had four.

Jesus Sanchez hit a two-run homer in the first inning, his sixth round tripper of the year and his second in two days. 

Miami won the final two games of the series after losing 11 in a row to Cincinnati over the past two years.

Luzardo out dueled the Reds Tyler Mahle (10-5) who allowed two runs in seven innings.

A crowd of 11,019 were on hand to see the hometown player get a win and gave him a warm reception as he departed the contest.

You can rest assure the MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred had to be pleased that this game ended under three hours.

——————————————————————————————————————————

So here you have it. 

Two young arms that Marlins fans can look forward to seeing in 2022 and beyond.

Luzardo is 23 years old and was born on September 30, 1997 in Lima, Peru. 

The 6-0, left-handed hurler played at the 2018 All Star Futures Game.

Meanwhile, the 6-4, Cabrera, a right-hander is also 23 and was born on April 13, 1998 and hails from Santiago, Dominican Republic. 

He is regarded as the No. 2 prospect in the Marlins organization. 

It was great to get “A Glimpse Of The Future” for both of these pitchers in a span of four days. I’m looking forward to seeing these guys again.

Scott Morganroth can be reached at southfloridatribune@gmail.com and you can follow him on Twitter @TribuneSouth.

You can also see his broadcast by Subscribing to the South FloridaTribune You Tube Channel at no cost.