Cade Cavalli is coming off arguably his best performance of the season as a Washington Nationals after taking his no-hit bid into the seventh inning
After trading Foster Griffin to the Cleveland Guardians ahead of the trade deadline, the Washington Nationals once again had a question mark to answer along its starting rotation. Yet the bullpen has, at times, come through for Washington evidenced by the sweep at home against the Cincinnati Reds. Thursday afternoon, though, offered a different outlook after starting pitcher Cade Cavalli dazzled at home.
In what may have been his best start not just of the season, but as a National, Cavalli took a no-hitter through seven innings before giving up a single. It marked his lone hit allowed in the win after moving to 10-5 on the season, now one of 23 pitchers to reach double digit wins this season.
Cavalli did so by tossing ten strikeouts in eight innings, marking the fourth time this season he has reached double digit strikeouts and the most since tossing 13 against the Boston Red Sox back on July 30. The lead in the rotation already entered the day with wins in five of his last eight appearances while holding opposing batters to a .226 batting average over his last 45.1 innings pitched. His six wins since June 30 are now tied with Matthew Boyd, Brandon Pfaadt and Cristopher Sanchez for the fourth most across baseball during that span, doing so with arguably his best control of the season on Thursday.
It also marked the second consecutive outing that Cavalli tossed over 100 pitches, ending with 103 on Thursday afternoon, to record his first shutout performance since July 22 against the Colorado Rockies after heading to the dugout with a 3.35 ERA this season.
Yet the performance was more than enough to etch himself into the Nationals' record book once again after joining Max Scherzer as the only two pitchers in Nationals history (since 2005) to record two or more games in a single season with ten or more strikeouts and one hit or less allowed across at least seven innings.
While Cavalli is currently set to take the mound next on Wednesday, Aug. 19 in a road series against the Texas Rangers, the Nationals will look to stay road warriors like they have been this season when they kick off a nine game road trip beginning Friday night against the New York Mets, who enter the series at the bottom of the National League East standings. Though the outlook of the Nationals' season has shifted, Washington enters the weekend five games back from the Philadelphia Phillies for the final wild card spot.
