Cabrera goes eight in Biscuits' shutout

One of the biggest hurdles for any young international player signed to play pro ball in the United States is getting acclimated to a new culture and language. Génesis Cabrera, signed by Tampa Bay as a 17-year-old in 2013, is no exception.
The left-hander has pitched to mixed results in the Southern League this season and Double-A Montgomery pitching coach R.C. Lichtenstein believes a major factor has been a misunderstanding in expectations and instruction. As he put it, the message is received clearly, but the context kind of gets lost in translation. And that's led to some bumps in the road.
There was nothing lost in translation about Cabrera's performance on Sunday.
The Rays' No. 21 prospect turned in the best outing of his career as he gave up four hits and a walk while striking out seven over eight innings in the Biscuits' 5-0 blanking of Birmingham at Montgomery Riverwalk Stadium. The victory snapped Montgomery's four-game skid.

"What I saw today was the best version of Genesis Cabrera," Lichtenstein said. "He was aggressive from the first batter, he had good timing, he mixed his pitches well and he stayed in rhythm. When he gets into a good rhythm, he's incredibly dominant.
"You know, like a lot of young Latin players, I think he is still trying to grasp what's being asked of him. We realized he understands what we're telling him, but he defines the message a little differently and we've been able to identify that and work on it. But it's all part of growth and maturity and we know he is the kind of pitcher that's going to impact a big league team soon."
The 21-year-old had never retired a batter in the eighth inning before Sunday when he navigated through his final frame with a pair of strikeouts and a groundout. He set down five of the last six Barons he faced and benefited from a double play after putting runners at the corners with one out in the seventh.
"I felt really good today," Cabrera said after his third scoreless outing of the season. "I had command of all of my pitches and I was able to throw everything for a strike. I've also been working on keeping my breaking pitch down in the zone, and I was able to do that today."
Gameday box score
Cabrera (6-4) threw 67 of a career-high 112 pitches for strikes, eclipsing his previous mark of 109 set on June 4 when he went seven innings in a 3-0 win at Mississippi. Against the Barons, he retired 16 of the first 17 hitters, including 14 in a row at one point, and faced the minimum through 5 2/3 innings after David Rodríguez caught Ryan Brett trying to steal in the first. The native of the Dominican Republic worked 1-2-3 frames in the second, third, fourth and fifth.
After giving up back-to-back singles to start the seventh to No. 13 White Sox prospectLuis Alexander Basabe and Brett, Cabrera got Trey Michalczewski on a fly ball to center and was helped by a heads-up play by Nathaniel Lowe. The first baseman caught a foul pop off the bat of Danny Mendick, then fired to the plate to nail Basabe trying to score.

"That was the first and only time all game that Genesis allowed consecutive hits," Lichtenstein said. "And Basabe is just trying to make something happen there because he realized they weren't going to get many chances to score. Genesis was in a solid rhythm and he was pitching ahead all day. And when he's ahead and mixing his pitches, he's really tough to deal with. It was fun to watch.

"But that was a big play because he was already at 94 pitches at the point, so if he has to face the next batter there is no chance he goes out for the eighth. But Nathaniel makes that play, and it was a huge boost for Genesis to go out there and pitch the eighth."
Right-hander Roel Ramirez worked around a hit in the ninth to complete Montgomery's seventh shutout of the season.
Lowe also contributed offensively as he drove in the Biscuits' first run with a first-inning single. Rays No. 24 prospect Ryan Boldt blasted his career-high sixth dinger, a solo shot in the eighth.