The Nationals didn’t just salvage the day in Colorado - they turned it into a clean series win, and Cade Cavalli was the reason the whole thing never got away from them.
Washington rolled to an 8-0 shutout over the Rockies on the back of six scoreless innings from Cavalli and a seventh inning that blew the game open. After dropping the previous night, the Nats answered with a performance that was steady early, then ruthless once the offense found its rhythm.
For four innings, neither lineup could crack the code. Cavalli and Gabriel Hughes matched each other pitch for pitch, and Washington wasted its best early chance in the second inning after opening the frame with back-to-back singles. Colorado had its own opening in the third when Jake McCarthy doubled with one out, but Cavalli shut it down by retiring Mickey Moniak and Hunter Goodman.
The fourth inning brought more of the same. The Nationals had runners on first and second with one out, only to see Daylen Lile and Keibert Ruiz both fly out. Colorado got the same setup in the bottom half, but Cavalli responded with back-to-back strikeouts to keep the game scoreless.
Washington finally broke through in the fifth. Jorbit Vivas led off with a triple, and James Wood followed with a sacrifice fly to bring him home for a 1-0 lead.
That was enough for Cavalli, who kept cruising with the lead in hand. He worked around a leadoff single in the sixth and then finished his outing by retiring the next three hitters. It was the latest strong turn in what’s becoming a very convincing stretch for him.
Cavalli’s line: 6 innings, 4 hits, 0 runs, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts, 90 pitches.
Hughes went 5 innings, allowing 5 hits and 1 run with 1 walk and 5 strikeouts on 88 pitches.
Then came the seventh, and the Nationals buried it. After two walks to start the inning, Nasim Nunez lined a base hit to left that was misplayed by Mickey Moniak, letting both runners score and sending Nunez to second. Two batters later, Luis Garcia launched his 21st homer of the season to make it 5-0.
The inning kept rolling with two outs. Washington strung together three straight singles, and Dylan Crews capped the burst with a two-run single that was helped along by two throwing errors on a wild sequence that pushed the lead to 7-0.
Eddy Yean, newly back from Triple-A, kept the momentum going out of the bullpen. He followed Cavalli and threw two scoreless innings to help bridge the game to the ninth.
The Nationals added one more in the eighth when Nunez came through again, this time lining an 0-2 splitter the other way for an RBI single that scored Keibert Ruiz and made it 8-0.
Max Kranick handled the ninth, allowing a little traffic but finishing off the shutout and the road series win.
“This felt like a really important game for us. I’m sure they all are, hopefully, down the stretch. But for whatever reason, this one felt like it was extremely important for us to come out with a win, and we leaned on [Cavalli] - and he answered for us.” - Blake Butera
Washington now gets an off-day before heading home for a key homestand. The Diamondbacks come to town for a three-game set starting Friday night, with Zack Littell (7-7, 5.34 ERA) set to start at 6:45 and Arizona’s starter still to be announced.
Down on the farm, Rochester fell 9-2 at Buffalo, though Brady House homered and Philip Glasser doubled. Harrisburg blasted Reading 12-2 behind five shutout innings from Riley Maddox and home runs from Ethan Petry, TJ White and Jonathon Thomas.
Wilmington lost 5-2, but Jacob Walsh homered and Elijah Green went 3-for-4 with a double. Fredericksburg beat Fayetteville 9-6, with Travis Sthele allowing one earned run over 5.1 innings and Nick Peoples driving in three with a home run.
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Woods production has given this offense a different kind of edge, one that blends power with pressure on the bases and makes every inning feel a little less settled for opposing pitchers. CJ Abrams and Wood have also put themselves in rare company among MLBs all-around threats, and the bigger question now is whether Washington can keep stacking those kinds of performances as the homestand unfolds and the lineups momentum gets tested by a pair of different pitching staffs. [Read more 🡒]