After nearly three years off the mound in Nationals Park, Cade Cavalli made a significant return to a big league mound tonight for the second time in his career and the first time since 2022. For those who missed it, he was everything we could have hoped for.
My expectations were very low for Cavalli as I’ve followed his minor league season this year, and he’s not been fooling many in Triple-A with a 6.09 ERA and 1.554 WHIP, but tonight, none of that mattered. He only made it through 4⅓ innings, but did so without allowing a run, generating 19 whiffs, and would have gone deeper had it not been for some shaky defense behind him that included two throwing errors.
This triumphant night for Cavalli was capped off by a walk-off single from CJ Abrams to score Robert Hassell III who led-off the 9th inning with a double. This ended the six-game losing streak and gave the Nationals a little joy amidst this dreadful homestand.
This game didn’t see its first hit until the top of the third inning as Cavalli and Jeffrey Springs dueled back and forth for the majority of the early part of this game. Cade’s terrific stuff was on full display, as he wracked up four strikeouts over the first two innings, giving this DC crowd something to cheer for.
The scoring didn’t begin until the sixth inning. Konnor Pilkington had come in to relieve Cavalli in the fifth and did a nice job of getting the Nats out of a jam, but Tyler Soderstrom put a black eye on Konnor’s night to lead off the sixth as he sent a solo homer out to right-center field to put the Athletics ahead 1-0.
Meanwhile, the Nats’ offense was having zero luck getting to Jeffrey Springs, who was perfect through five innings to begin this one. That ended in the bottom of the sixth, as Riley Adams led off the inning with a solo homer of his own to even the game at one apiece, and after six, the game was in the hands of both bullpens.
- Jeffrey Springs: 6.0 innings, 1 hit, 1 run (1 earned), 0 walks, 5 strikeouts, 92 pitches
- Cade Cavalli: 4⅓ innings, 3 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, 6 strikeouts, 88 pitches
The game continued to fly by, neither offense putting together any rally whatsoever until the bottom of the ninth. Robert Hassell led off the ninth with a huge double to put the winning run in scoring position with nobody out. Jacob Young was unable to get him over to third, striking out on a foul bunt, but CJ Abrams stepped to the plate and put an end to it all with a base hit that scored Hassell to give the Nationals a much-needed win to even this series at one.
Positives tonight, for the first time in quite a while, are centered around the pitching staff. Cavalli, Pilkington, Cole Henry, Shinnosuke Ogasawara, and Jose A. Ferrer all played big roles in keeping the Athletics’ offense at bay all night. Offensively, I’ll give shoutouts to Riley Adams for his homer, CJ for obvious reasons, and Robert Hassell III for getting on with that big double to set up the winning hit.
The series will conclude tomorrow afternoon as the Nats have a real early 12:05 start to complete the homestand. Mitchell Parker (7-11, 5.35 ERA) will get the ball in a battle of lefties against Jacob Lopez (4-6, 3.99 ERA) for tomorrow’s rubber match. The Nats fly out to California after tomorrow’s game; a series win would do a lot towards making that flight a happy one.
