Cade Cavalli didn’t just pitch well at Fenway Park. He overwhelmed the Red Sox in a way that looked like a different gear entirely, carving through the lineup with 25 whiffs and 13 strikeouts in what was easily the best start of his career.
The night started with an unearned run in the first inning, but even then the signs were there. The ball was jumping out of his hand, the velocity was up, and his breaking pitches had sharper life. By the second inning, that feel turned into something much louder: he struck out the side and hit triple digits more than once.
What made the outing stand out wasn’t just the strikeout total. It was the fastball.
Cavalli has long had top-end velocity, but last night the pitch played like a weapon instead of just a hard throw. He piled up 15 of his 25 whiffs with the four-seamer, and Red Sox hitters couldn’t square it up whether it was up in the zone, middle, or down.
The heater was coming in hotter than usual too, with more 99s than normal. He looked locked in from the start, and that edge only sharpened after the 4th inning brawl.
There was also a wrinkle in the mix. Cavalli appeared to be throwing some kind of cutter, even though Baseball Savant didn’t list one.
It looked like a 94-95 MPH fastball with more cutting action, and Pitch Profiler on X tagged it as a slider and a cutter. Whatever the label, it looked like a single pitch type.
That extra look may be worth keeping around, especially because it seems to bridge his fastball and curveball well.
Interestingly, the curveball wasn’t the star this time. Usually that hard downer curve is Cavalli’s main swing-and-miss pitch, but he got only 3 of his 25 whiffs on it.
The sweeper was the better breaking ball on this night, and that pitch is a newer addition to his arsenal this year. He added it to help neutralize right-handed hitters after they gave him problems last season.
The curve and sweeper can blend together at times, but they were clearly separate offerings against Boston, and he used the sweeper to collect several strikeouts. Then, for his final punchout, he went back to the curveball and froze Jarren Duran.
The result was the kind of outing Nationals fans have been waiting to see again. Cavalli didn’t allow a baserunner after the first inning, and the whole performance had the feel of the dominant nights Washington used to get from Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg. MacKenzie Gore has had strong starts, including Opening Day last year, but none matched this level of command and dominance.
For Cavalli, 27, it was a huge moment in a career that has taken a long road to get here. Drafted in 2020, he climbed the minors as a top prospect, made one start in 2022, and then got hurt almost immediately. The following spring, his elbow blew out and he underwent Tommy John Surgery.
The recovery was anything but smooth. He dealt with multiple setbacks and ended up missing close to two seasons. He also wasn’t dominant in the minors last year, though he earned another big-league shot late in the season and flashed enough to matter.
The Nationals’ new regime clearly believed in him, and they showed it by naming him Opening Day starter despite his limited experience. Cavalli has had ups and downs this season, but the overall body of work has been solid: a 3.69 ERA, 3.22 FIP, 90.1 innings, 2.1 fWAR, more than 10 strikeouts per nine innings and fewer than three walks per nine.
What last night added was proof that there’s still another level in there. The fastball may not look this electric every time out, but when it does, he changes the whole shape of a game. He pounded the zone with it, got chases when it missed, and made Boston look overmatched.
There was plenty going on in the game, but Cavalli’s start was the headline. He looked like Max Scherzer in terms of intensity and raw stuff, and the next step is simple: do it again.
Consistency has been the question, and if he follows this with another outing like it, the conversation around him gets a lot bigger. At that point, Cade Cavalli starts looking less like a promising arm and more like a real frontline starter.
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