{"id":653879,"date":"2026-03-31T04:57:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:57:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/653879\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:57:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:57:45","slug":"edward-cabrera-gets-6-shutout-innings-in-chicago-cubs-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/653879\/","title":{"rendered":"Edward Cabrera gets 6 shutout innings in Chicago Cubs debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Edward Cabrera\u2019s defining moment in his Chicago Cubs debut came two batters into Monday\u2019s series opener.<\/p>\n

He needed just two pitches to put Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout in an 0-2 hole that the future Hall of Famer battled out of to force a full count. Cabrera, on the eighth pitch of the at-bat, trusted catcher Carson Kelly\u2019s call<\/a> to go to his curveball \u2014 and he executed perfectly.<\/p>\n

Cabrera got Trout to swing over the curveball down and out of the zone to strike him out. The tone-setting sequence put Cabrera into cruise control, getting a mix of whiffs and soft contact to limit the Angels to just one hit in six shutout innings en route to a 7-2 Cubs victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe tells me he\u2019s comfortable with everything in any count, so there you go,\u201d a grinning Kelly said of Trout\u2019s strikeout.<\/p>\n

The Cubs\u2019 lineup spotted Cabrera an early lead with a pair of three-run frames in the first and third innings. Six Cubs drove in a run in the win, led by a wind-aided two-run single from Kelly, an Ian Happ home run for a third consecutive game and Mois\u00e9s Ballesteros\u2019<\/a> two-out, two-run single in the third.<\/p>\n

An efficient Cabrera issued only one walk and quickly erased the lone hit \u2014 a Nolan Schanuel one-out single in the fourth \u2014 with a double play from the next hitter. Three of his five strikeouts came against the final five Angels he faced.<\/p>\n

These types of outings are why the Cubs traded for the 27-year-old<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got better as the game went on. I thought after the second inning he was just excellent,\u201d manager Craig Counsell said. \u201cHe faced 19 hitters, one walk so no free base runners, that\u2019s gonna play for sure. And on a night like tonight, that\u2019s really important as well and that\u2019s probably the most important thing for him is controlling counts really well. \u2026 It was not one walk because of an aggressive team. It was one walk because a lot of quality pitches.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago Cubs’ Edward Cabrera, wearing custom cleats, delivers a pitch against the Los Angeles Angels at Wrigley Field on March 30, 2026, in Chicago. (Michael Reaves\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Cabrera, rocking custom blue cleats featuring a retro Cubbie bear logo, displayed the type of poise and attacking mentality the Cubs expected from the right-hander. His five-pitch mix kept the Angels guessing. He finished with 15 whiffs and nine called strikes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018I think I\u2019m the best every time I take the mound,\u2019 and I truly believe that,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cI think he\u2019s gonna go out there and bring that energy every single time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cabrera became the first Cubs pitcher to throw at least six shutout innings with one hit or fewer and one walk or fewer in his team debut since Don Cardwell on May 15, 1960.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s start represented the largest home crowd (36,702) that Cabrera has ever pitched in front of in his career. In his 44 career home games with the Marlins, Miami averaged 11,118 fans. That includes the team drawing about 34,000 last year twice in games he started.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe emotions are very different, that is super real,\u201d Cabrera said through an interpreter. \u201cIt is a big difference on the fan bases than the number of fans that we had in Miami. But I try not to focus too much on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forty minutes before first pitch, Cubs fans in the bleachers cheered on Cabrera while he made the trek to the bullpen. As he approached the bullpen door, Cabrera fist-pumped in their direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt really proud to be able to go out there and have that moment,\u201d Cabrera said. \u201cSo I want to thank the fans for the love and support that they showed me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Edward Cabrera\u2019s defining moment in his Chicago Cubs debut came two batters into Monday\u2019s series opener. He needed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2390],"tags":[291,5,34,24,576,4914,36,1165,446,3223,774,56,3224,3222,603,4,256],"class_list":["post-653879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-angels","tag-angels","tag-baseball","tag-carson-kelly","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-craig-counsell","tag-edward-cabrera","tag-ian-happ","tag-la","tag-la-angels","tag-laangels","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesangels","tag-mike-trout","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-baseball"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116322020600134060","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}