The Washington Nationals need an ace start from Cade Cavalli — and they got even more than that in a 7.0 inning, 1 hit, 0 earned run gem en route to an 8-1 win. The series is tied and the Nats have a series to win today to return to Washington, D.C. tonight on a happy flight.
With Miles Mikolas and Cavalli both going 7.0 innings each in this series, the Nats bullpen has only needed Zak Kent and Orlando Ribalta in this series. With a day-off tomorrow, the Nats, as we reported earlier, will pitch Brad Lord as their opener with Andrew Alvarez as the bulk starter.
With the day-off tomorrow, the plan is to give CJ Abrams the day-off from today’s game to give him two in a row to rest his body. That’s the plan, but who knows if Abrams will enter the game later.
BREAKING: Eli Willits is named to the 2026 All-Star Future's Game
ICYMI, news broke that Eli Willits was named to the 2026 All-Star Future’s game. In addition, Miguel Sime Jr. will be the Nats other player to make the All-Star Future’s roster in a game that will be played at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Sunday, July 12. This is the 27th All-Star Futures Game that features the top Minor League prospects as a part of All-Star Sunday.
Willits, 18, is Washington’s top prospect and the No. 3 prospect in all of baseball, according to MLBPipeline.com. He is the only player in all of Minor League Baseball with at least 10 home runs, 35 stolen bases and 65 runs scored this season. Willits ranks seventh in the Minor Leagues with 67 runs scored, while his 37 stolen bases are good for eighth.
❝It was really impressive what [Cavalli] was able to do, obviously with all the emotions flying high.❞
— manager Blake Butera said after last night’s game
On offense, the Nats are at the 2nd in MLB for the most runs scored this season at 460 runs and that is an impressive 5.29 runs per game. With the Nats pitching giving up 4.66 earned runs per game, the difference is really those pesky unearned runs due to the errors. Overall, the Nats have a +9 run differential on the season.
The FanGraphs WAR chart is now large in its sample size. You can certainly start to extrapolate the numbers for the full-season. The OAA defense stat is now giving us a picture of what the Nats have — and don’t have.
Washington Nationals vs. Boston Red Sox
Stadium: Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts 1st Pitch: 1:35 PM EDT TV: Nationals.TV Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 178 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
