Francisco Cabrera (baseball)

Francisco Cabrera Hernandez (born October 10, 1966) is a Dominican former Major League Baseball catcher/first baseman who played five seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays and the Atlanta Braves, from 1989 to 1993. He also played in Japan with the Orix BlueWave in 1994 and the now defunct China Times Eagles of the CPBL in 1997.

Cabrera started his career with the Toronto Blue Jays, playing three games with them before being traded to the Braves for Jim Acker in the middle of the 1989 season. Cabrera was a reserve for most of his career and had his best season in 1990 in which he played sixty-three games and had 137 at-bats, getting 38 hits, with seven home runs.

Cabrera is credited with hitting the home run that marked the turning point in the history of the Atlanta Braves. On Wednesday, August 21, 1991, the Braves played the Reds and entered the ninth inning trailing, 9–6. Reds ace reliever Rob Dibble was on the mound with two outs. Cabrera had started the game to give Braves starter Greg Olson a much-needed rest. With two outs, David Justice doubled, and Brian Hunter walked to bring Cabrera to the plate with the tying run. He responded with a three-run homer off Dibble to tie the game, which the Braves eventually won in 13 innings. The game kept them .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);clip-path:polygon(0px 0px,0px 0px,0px 0px);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}2+1⁄2 games behind the Dodgers in a race they eventually won by one game. The Braves went 29–12 after Cabrera's home run and eventually reached the World Series before losing to the Twins in seven games.

Cabrera is best known for his two out game-winning pinch hit off Stan Belinda in the ninth inning of the seventh and deciding game of the 1992 National League Championship Series that put the Braves into the World Series. Cabrera hit a line drive over shortstop Jay Bell on a 2–1 pitch to left field that scored David Justice and Sid Bream, who barely beat a left-field throw from Barry Bonds to win the pennant for the Braves. Cabrera had batted only ten times during the season.

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