Cabrera’s Six Shutout Innings Not Enough in Loss vs. Salt Lake

RENO, Nev. – Right-handed pitcher Jose Cabrera turned in a dominant outing in his first home start at the Triple-A level, but the offense struggled in a 3-0 loss to the Salt Lake Bees on Saturday night.

Much of the reason the game went without a run for so long was due to the starting pitching efforts of both squads but specifically Aces (30-38) starter Jose Cabrera. In just his third Triple-A outing, and first at Greater Nevada Field, he worked six scoreless innings, punching out six batters along the way for the second time this season.

Cabrera did have to dance out of danger in his final frame as the Bees (35-32) worked a pair of two-out walks in the top of the sixth, but the final strikeout of the night by Cabrera brought an end to the frame. That capped off the first quality start of the season for Cabrera, and the fourth by an Ace this season.

Jonatan Bernal came out of the bullpen in relief of Cabrera and tossed two scoreless frames in his Triple-A debut, striking out a pair and allowing just two baserunners.

Reno struggled for offense, logging just four hits through the first six innings. Two of those belonged to Luis Urías, though Tim Tawa had the only extra-base hit with a double that kicked off the home half of the first. For the night, the Aces were 1-for-17 with runners in scoring position stranding 16 runners on base.

The game remained scoreless through eight innings before Salt Lake rallied for three runs in the top of the ninth. The BLC-Nine attempted to rally in the bottom half, loading the bases with two outs but were kept off the board in a shutout loss on Saturday night.

The Aces now have four quality starts from their starting pitchers this season, and have not won any of those four games.

Reno will look to bounce back and salvage a series split in Sunday’s series finale. First pitch from Greater Nevada Field will be at 1:05 p.m.