Game 56: Nats at Guardians
Cade Cavalli and the Nationals look to make it four in a row after surpassing the .500 mark during Monday's blowout win
It’s a matchup of winning teams tonight in Cleveland. And no, this has nothing to do with the Eastern Conference Finals that wrapped up across the street Monday night. The Nationals and Guardians are both above .500 as they square off in the second game of this three-game interleague series.
The Nats are on some kind of roll here. They’ve won three straight against first-place opponents, and they’ve held those teams to a grand total of three runs. The pitching has been outstanding, and it applies to just about everyone on the staff at this point.
Cade Cavalli will look to continue the trend and build off his own top-notch start last week against the Mets, when he went seven strong innings allowing only two runs, striking out nine. The right-hander was on the wrong end of a 2-1 decision, but that wasn’t his fault in the least. He was in peak form, not to mention super efficient in throwing only 84 pitches over those seven frames.
A Nationals lineup that blasted six homers during Monday night’s win will try to keep that going against Cleveland left-hander Joey Cantillo. The 26-year-old Hawaiian has been solid so far this season, going 4-1 with a 3.05 ERA in 11 starts, though his walk rate (4.3 per nine innings) has been a bit high. Patience could be a virtue tonight for Nats hitters.
I am not going to be able to watch this game, unfortunately, and will be occupied all day. Hope you all enjoy the conversation, and I’ll be back for Wednesday afternoon’s series finale.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS at CLEVELAND GUARDIANS
Where: Progressive Field
Gametime: 6:10 p.m. EDT
TV: Nationals TV (channel listings)
Radio: 106.7 FM
Weather: Partly cloudy, 70 degrees, wind 5 mph in from left
NATIONALS
LF James Wood
3B Curtis Mead
1B Andrés Chaparro
SS CJ Abrams
RF Dylan Crews
DH Daylen Lile
CF Jacob Young
2B Nasim Nuñez
C Keibert Ruiz
RHP Cade Cavalli
GUARDIANS
2B Travis Bazzana
3B José Ramírez
DH Chase DeLauter
1B Kyle Manzardo
CF Daniel Schneemann
RF Angel Martínez
LF Steven Kwan
C Patrick Bailey
SS Brayan Rocchio
LHP Joey Cantillo
Thanks for posting this in the middle of funeral, grief and loss. We will hold down the fort and hope to bring hope a 4th straight CURLY W this evening
I'm gonna do a bit of bitchin' here...watching News4, and J.P. Finlay (a Commanders guy) is talking Nationals. He shows a graph showing how they've been hovering around .500 all season.
He then goes on to say that if the pitching can get better, then good things could happen. Hey dude, pitching HAS been better, that's part of the reason WHY they are where they are.
Could the pitching be better? Yes. But to look at the numbers without context, and not understanding that the pitching staff is so much better in May than it was in April, is simply ignorant.
OK, rant over. 😁