After making his MLB debut on Saturday, the Washington Nationals sent Riley Cornelio back down to Triple A Rochester
After one game in the majors, the Washington Nationals demoted a new name heading into game two on Saturday.
The Nationals announced following Friday's loss that right handed pitcher Riley Cornelio will head back down to Triple A Rochester after struggling on Friday night in his MLB debut.
Cornelio, 25, allowed a pair of earned runs and four hits and tossed four walks to one strikeout in two innings.
With Cornelio making his debut in the seventh inning, the White Sox retook the lead twice after finding sustained offense late in the game. The new Nationals reliever walked his first two batters before allowing consecutive RBI hits to first give up the lead. He then again allowed his first two batters to reach base before a sac bunt pushed both runners into scoring position, proving to be costly after a sac fly gave the White Sox the final run to hand Cornelio the loss.
Manager Blake Butera said postgame that the Nationals were mindful about when Cornelio would make his debut to begin an inning "unless [Munetaka] Murakami came up, then we'd go [Richard] Lovelady on Murakami then give Riley a clean inning."
"We didn't want to bring Riley into a dirty inning. We wanted to get him [a] somewhat soft landing," manager Blake Butera said after the loss.
Which direction the Nationals opt to go now will be a question mark given president of baseball operations Paul Toboni and general manager Ani Kilambi have turned to the Rochester pitching staff in the wake of both Cole Henry and Ken Waldichuk suffering injuries, the latter likely requiring Tommy John surgery contingent on additional testing.
Riley, meanwhile, will look to get back on track after an encouraging start to his 2026 regular season in spring training. Through four appearances in Triple A Rochester, Cornelio has tossed 27 strikeouts and allowed five earned run, a pair of home runs and 11 hits across 18.1 innings to own a 2.45 ERA. He made his first ppearance in Triple A during the 2025 season when he tossed 38 strikeouts and 13 walks while owning a 5.35 ERA across 35.1 innings and eight appearances.
With one less arm to turn to in the bullpen, the Nationals will look to rebound in game two when they face the White Sox for a 4:10 PM opening pitch on Saturday afternoon as Jake Irvin is set to take the mound.