Cabrera sits with sore ankle, could come off bench (Nats up 3-1)

MIAMI - Asdrúbal Cabrera is out of today's lineup, the veteran second baseman dealing with a sore right ankle after he was thrown out at the plate during Saturday night's 10-4 10-inning win over the Marlins.

Manager Davey Martinez said Cabrera is not scheduled to undergo an MRI and doesn't believe the injury is serious enough to prevent him from playing altogether, but he wanted to give the 33-year-old a chance to rest today.

"I haven't talked to (director of athletic training Paul Lessard) yet, but I'm assuming after coming out yesterday he's going to be a little stiff," Martinez said during his pregame media session, roughly 90 minutes before first pitch of the series finale. "But I think he'll be available to come off the bench today."

The injury occurred during the top of the fourth Saturday night, with Bob Henley waving Cabrera around third base on Yan Gomes' one-out single to center. Miami's Magneuris Sierra's throw to the plate beat Cabrera by 10 feet, and Bryan Holaday had little trouble putting down the tag in plenty of time to record the out.

Sliding with his left foot extended, Cabrera's right foot appeared to be pinned for a moment under Holaday's shin guard. He limped off the field and back down the dugout steps as Martinez tried to assist him from falling.

"Just the way he slid - I watched it last night, too - it was kind of ugly," Martinez said. "His spike kind of caught in the ground, and it just came up and it was the front part of his ankle."

Cabrera did stay in the game, though, recording an RBI single in the fifth and leading off the eighth with another single. At that point, Martinez sent Michael A. Taylor out to pinch-run for him.

"He was sore," the manager said. "I watched him run around, move around. He started getting stiff. And I talked to him before his last at-bat. When he got on base, we pinch-ran for him, just because I knew he was sore."

Brian Dozier took over for Cabrera at second base and wound up delivering the go-ahead RBI single in the 10th, and the veteran is starting today for the first time in more than a week.

Update: The Nationals jumped on Marlins starter Pablo López out of the gate, recording three straight singles, including Anthony Rendon's 120th RBI of the season. But that's all they've done so far through three innings. The Marlins also scored a first inning run off Austin Voth, thanks in large part to Magneuris Sierra's leadoff triple, on a ball Juan Soto struggled to corrall down the left field line. Voth has otherwise been solid, throwing 46 pitches through three innings to keep this a 1-1 game.

Update II: I will admit I'm not a fan of using instant replay on "neighborhood play" calls, but the Nationals used it to perfection in the top of the fourth. After scoring the go-ahead run on Dozier's RBI groundout, they seemed to be out of the inning on a Victor Robles 5-4-3 double play. Except they challenged the call at second base, saying Isan Díaz's foot was not on the bag when he caught the ball. It was close, but they were right. So the inning continued, and Voth proceeded to notch his first career hit and first career RBI, extending the lead to 3-1.