Game 108: Blue Jays at Nats

Cade Cavalli and the Nationals look to bounce back from Monday night's loss and even up their series with Toronto

The Nationals lost their series opener to the Blue Jays, just as they did to the Diamondbacks over the weekend. Can they bounce back from that and win the next two, just as they did against Arizona? That’s the task now facing this club during a critical week in the schedule.

Blake Butera’s squad needs to convert more scoring opportunities tonight than it did Monday against Max Scherzer and six Toronto relievers, who allowed just two hits in 12 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Most of the names in the lineup are the same against Shane Bieber, but a few have been moved around into different spots. Most notably, Dylan Crews will bat third tonight.

Cade Cavalli gets the ball and looks to keep his recent run of success going. Over his last five starts, the right-hander is 3-0 with a 2.30 ERA, 0.878 WHIP and 38 strikeouts in 27 1/3 innings. This run started with his 100-pitch gem at Fenway Park. That remains the only time in his brief career Cavalli has reached triple digits in his pitch count. Could we see Butera give him more opportunities to do that as the games get more significant?

The Nationals have made one tweak to their pitching staff: Andrew Alvarez was optioned to Triple-A Rochester after his laborious bulk outing Monday, and Gus Varland was recalled this afternoon. That gives them an extra reliever for now, with Jake Irvin potentially set to rejoin the rotation in the next few days. It also gives the Varland brothers a chance to pitch for competing teams the next two days, which is pretty cool.

I’m actually not going to be at tonight’s game due to a family event. I’ll try to monitor things and will jump in if there’s anything that needs to be covered. If not, enjoy the conversation among yourselves, and I’ll be back at Nationals Park for Wednesday’s series finale before hitting the road for a critical, eight-game trip to Atlanta and Philadelphia.

TORONTO BLUE JAYS at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: Nationals TV (channel listings)
Radio: 106.7 FM
Weather: Chance of storms, 79 degrees, wind 9 mph out to center

BLUE JAYS
LF Yohendrick Piñango
RF Nathan Lukes
1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
DH George Springer
C Brandon Valenzuela
CF Daulton Varsho
3B Ernie Clement
SS Andrés Giménez
2B Luis Urias

RHP Shane Bieber

NATIONALS
DH James Wood
1B Luis García Jr.
RF Dylan Crews
SS CJ Abrams
C Keibert Ruiz
LF Daylen Lile
2B Nasim Nuñez
3B Jorbit Vivas
CF Jacob Young

RHP Cade Cavalli