St. Louis Cardinals: Genesis Cabrera and the three batter failure
By David Hill
Wednesday night had one of the most frightening moments of the 2021 major league season. Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper was struck in the face with a 97 MPH fastball from St. Louis Cardinals‘ reliever Genesis Cabrera, who obviously had zero command of his pitches. After Harper was helped off the diamond and sent to the hospital for evaluation, Cabrera then his the next batter, Didi Gregorius.
The fact that Cabrera was even on the mound to face Gregorius was a failure of the system. As manager Mike Shildt said, Cabrera would have otherwise been removed after hitting Harper.
#stlcards manager Mike Shildt said leaving Cabrera in the game was “a failure of the three batter minimum” when @dgoold asked him that. Was definitive. Said it’s an outlier, was firm that this was a bad situation with that rule. “That’s a tough thing to deal with in competition.”
— Jeff Jones (@jmjones) April 29, 2021
St. Louis Cardinals reliever Genesis Cabrera highlights failure of three batter minimum
There were certainly ways around Cabrera being forced into facing two more batters. The Cardinals could have faked an injury, removing their command challenged reliever from the game before any more damage was done. Such a move would have saved Gregorius from his own subsequent bruise.
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It was a matter of time before a situation such as this occurred. Cabrera is part of the current class of major league relievers – pitchers who throw hard, but whose command can be questionable any time they take the mound. He has a career 10.7 K/9 rate in his 53 innings, but also has a 5.3 BB/9 rate and has hit eight batters.
He had displayed signs of reigning in his electric stuff this season. Cabrera was still striking out over ten batters per nine innings, but had issued just four walks in 10.1 innings of work. The two batters he hit yesterday were his first hit batters of the season. But command issues can rear up at any time, especially with a pitcher who has such a history.
Fortunately, Harper will be fine. He posted an update to his Instagram last night where he said that he feels good and that he hopes to see the fans soon. That scary situation last night certainly could have been much worse than it was.
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St. Louis Cardinals reliever Genesis Cabrera never should have remained in the game after hitting Bryce Harper in the face. It is a failure of the three batter minimum.