The Washington Nationals will look to get back in the win column on Wednesday with Cade Cavalli set to take the mound in search of his first win
After being blanked on Monday night, the Washington Nationals will look to get back in the win column in search of the 11th road win of the season.
The Nationals' offense went cold in Tuesday's loss with just three hits while three players posted multiple strikeouts while Jorbit Vivas was the lone starter to avoid a strikeout with the team finishing with 11. Zack Littell struggled once again after giving up a pair of home runs with the 13 allowed the season still leading all of baseball, another sign of struggles for the Nationals as president of baseball operations Paul Toboni cautioned patience for noticeable improvements to materialize this season.
Still, the Nationals entered the series giving up the second-most runs, 171, so far this season putting them only three behind the Astros 174.
With numbers like these, the Nationals may be forced to make some early pitching changes. But having to call in a reliever early might be especially troublesome considering the challenges the bullpen is currently facing.
But don’t count the Nationals out yet. James Wood has been hot this season. He currently leads the Nationals League with 10 homeruns and is tied with Yankees Ben Rice across the MLB for homers. Nasim Nunez leads the MLB with 13 stolen bases on the year.
Defensively, the Nationals will have to step up their game and eliminate runs early on if they want to avoid a deficit that is hard to recover from.
They will hope a stronger start from the starting pitcher with Cade Cavalli set to take the mound in search of his first win of the season. Cavalli enters the matchup with 28 strikeouts across 24.2 innings pitched with a 4.01 ERA and 1.66 WHIP to open 2026, yet he has allowed at least one earned run in all six starts this season.
Similar to Cavalli, the Mets will turn to David Peterson for the start on Wednesday with the 30 year old left hander also in search of his first win as he enters the matchup with a 0-3 record, 5.06 ERA and 1.65 WHIP. Peterson has failed to last more than four innings in each of his last two starts as the Nationals will hope to keep the trend going.
With Miles Mikolas set to make the start, the Nationals will wrap up the series Thursday afternoon at 1:10 p.m. before heading back home to host the Brewers in a three-game series.