Cade Cavalli takes the ball for Washington to open a weekend set against the Cardinals, and the Nationals are doing it with their newly extended ace on the mound.
The bigger picture around this stretch run is simple enough. Since the World Series season of 2019, Washington has not finished with more than 71 wins in a year.
With nine games left in the 2026 season, the Nationals need just one more victory to get past that number, and two wins would push them to 73 and keep them from a 90-loss finish. The hope, of course, is that they do better than .500 over these final nine games.
After this one, the schedule tightens fast. Washington will have eight games left once it leaves St.
Louis for Detroit, with only two series remaining after that. The last weekend brings a final matchup with the Mets, which could end up as a fight for fourth place in the NL East - or, if the Marlins collapse, maybe even a battle for third.
The offense has given Washington a real base to work from. The Nationals rank third in MLB with 778 runs scored, a mark that works out to 5.11 runs per game.
The pitching staff has allowed 4.71 earned runs per game, and the gap between those numbers has been narrowed by the unearned runs that have piled up because of errors. Even with that, Washington sits at a plus-3 run differential on the season.
Manager Blake Butera’s bullpen chart is also part of the picture now, as are the larger sample sizes showing up in the FanGraphs WAR numbers. The OAA defense stat is giving a clearer look at what the Nationals have - and what they don’t.
In Other News...
Nationals Just Got A Reminder Of How Far This Core Has Come
A night that started with another meaningful win for the Nationals ended up doubling as a snapshot of how much this young core has changed. Washington reached 72 victories for its best total since 2019, and the run of progress came with Cade Cavalli handling the kind of workload that once would have been a future talking point rather than an immediate one, while CJ Abrams kept adding to a season that now includes power, speed and extra-base pop in equal measure.
There was also a notable return in the late innings, as Josiah Gray took the mound in the ninth for his first major league appearance since April 2024, a development that carried more weight than the score of the game itself. With Andrew Alvarez slated to start next, the Nationals are still sorting out the rest of the season one turn at a time, but nights like this offered a reminder that the talent base here is no longer just promising. It is starting to look established. [Read more 🡒]
Red Wings Suddenly Face Pressure In A Playoff Race That Tightened
A rough night in Buffalo slowed the Rochester Red Wings just as the International League second-half playoff race is beginning to tighten. Rochester had won two straight before the Bisons sent it back with a lopsided loss, a reminder that the margin for error is shrinking with the standings updating around them.
Jarlin Susana never got comfortable early, and the Red Wings offense could not do much against Buffalos pitching. With the race in the rearview and the calendar moving on, Rochester now has to sort out how quickly it can turn the page and keep pace in a crowded chase. [Read more 🡒]
Nationals Are Making A Quiet Front Office Push Fans Should Notice
The Nationals are making a subtle but meaningful move behind the scenes as president of baseball operations Paul Toboni and general manager Ani Kilambi prepare to expand the clubs analytics department. It is the kind of front-office investment that does not grab headlines the way a signing or trade does, but it speaks to where Washington wants to go, with the organization looking to sharpen everything from player projections and acquisitions to development and biomechanics.
The department already has 19 staffers, and the push is expected to widen its reach across baseball operations in a way that should touch both the majors and the pipeline underneath it. Washington is aiming for more efficiency and better support across the board, and the next step will be watching how many new roles get filled and where those hires fit within the clubs larger strategy. [Read more 🡒]