EVERETT – Asdrubal Cabrera may be the youngest player on the Everett AquaSox roster. But so far this season Cabrera has played like the canniest of veterans, and Wednesday night was just another example of that.
Cabrera came up with the most crucial hits of the game, including the go-ahead home run in the bottom of the seventh inning, leading the AquaSox to a 6-5 Northwest League victory over the Yakima Bears before a crowd of 1,984 at Everett Memorial Stadium.
Everett (16-10) snapped a two-game losing streak and also moved two games ahead of second-place Salem-Keizer, which lost 7-4 to Tri-City. Yakima fell to 10-16.
“I thought it was a pretty good game,” Everett manager Pedro Grifol said. “We were able to capitalize on a couple of errors and on a day where I didn’t think our bats weren’t there completely, we got a couple of big hits. Cabrera in particular really clutched up.”
But then, that’s become expected from Cabrera. The 18-year-old infielder – the only 18-year-old on the team – from Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, came into the game sixth in the league in batting at .338 and tied for first on the team in RBI with 19.
And Wednesday night he did it all. His two-run double in the fifth was the key hit that enabled the AquaSox to come back from a 4-1 deficit, and his solo shot to dead center field in the seventh broke a 6-6 tie and proved to be the difference. He finished the game 3-for-4 with three RBI.
“Nothing he does surprises me,” Grifol said of Cabrera.
“Like I said before the season started, we have three guys in the middle of the infield who can play (Yung Chi Chen and Oswaldo Navarro being the other two). They work hard and love to play and you’re going to see things like that day-in and day-out from all three of them.”
The AquaSox also got some help from the Bears, who had a defensive meltdown in the fifth. Three errors helped Everett score three runs to make it 4-4.
“We gave them four runs,” Yakima manager Bill Plummer said. “I thought (Yakima starter Josh) Perrault pitched very well. If we catch the ball we win the game. But that’s the way this year has gone for us. We haven’t been beaten, we’ve beaten ourselves.”
Everett starting pitcher Aaron Jensen pitched five innings, giving up four runs on six hits and three walks, striking out five. Cibney Bello earned the win with 21/3 innings of effective relief, improving to 2-1. Aaron Trolia pitched a perfect ninth to pick up his second save.
Perrault only gave up three hits and two walks in his five innings, but thanks to the errors he gave up four runs, two of which were earned. Joe Carque, who gave up Cabrera’s homer, took the loss to fall to 0-4.
Seattle Mariners catcher Miguel Olivo, playing the second game of his two-game rehabilitation stint in Everett, went 0-for-4.
The AquaSox struck first in the bottom of the first, on Brandon Green’s sacrifice fly, which gave Everett a 1-0 lead.
Yakima tied the score in the third when Mark Reynolds lined a shot over the scoreboard in right-center. His second homer of the season made it 1-1.
The Bears then took control in the fourth. With one out Chris Carter hit his fourth homer of the season, to give Yakima the lead. Then after the Bears loaded the bases, Brandon Simon sliced a two-run double down the left-field line, increasing the lead to 4-1.
The Bears then fell apart defensively in the fifth, allowing the AquaSox to tie the score. Brent Johnson reached when Yakima shortstop Steve Mena booted a grounder, and Johnson moved to third when Bears third baseman Reynolds threw away Navarro’s grounder. Cabrera followed by lacing a double to the gap in left-center, scoring both runners. Cabrera advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored when catcher Orlando Mercado uncorked a wild throw trying to throw Cabrera out at third, making it 4-4.
Yakima quickly regained the lead as Simon blasted a solo homer to right-center in the top of the sixth to make it 5-4. It was his first homer of the season.
Everett tied it up again in the bottom of the sixth. Mike Wilson doubled down the right-field line. Casey Craig smashed a grounder off second baseman Erik Schindewolf’s glove, and as Craig hustled to second with a double, Wilson scored to tie the score at 5-5 and set up Cabrera as the hero.
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