Game Thread: Nats vs. Astros in West Palm Beach
Cade Cavalli gets the start against Houston, and Blake Butera's starting lineup has some interesting wrinkles
You always have to be careful not to read too much into spring training lineups, because there are lots of factors at play that would never come into play during the regular season. Specific guys need specific work on specific days. Coaches want to see how certain players look in certain lineup spots and certain defensive positions. There’s no consideration given to matching up with the opposing starter.
Now, with all of those caveats out there … this is an interesting lineup Blake Butera has put together for this afternoon’s game against the Astros. It’s got Dylan Crews leading off with CJ Abrams behind him in the No. 2 spot. It’s got Brady House batting third, ahead of James Wood (who is playing right field again). It’s got Nasim Nuñez at third base, a position he has never played in a professional baseball game. Should we read anything into any of this? I don’t know, but if we see any of these particulars used in a real game three weeks from now, we’ll know the seeds were planted today in West Palm Beach.
Cade Cavalli, meanwhile, gets the start this afternoon. And if you want to play the prediction game, it’s worth noting the talented right-hander remains on a five-day pitching schedule that lines up with Opening Day at Wrigley Field. Again, there’s still plenty of time for the Nationals to adjust the rotation, but there’s also plenty of reason to start believing Cavalli is the frontrunner for that prestigious assignment. Let’s see how he handles a tough Houston lineup in this tune-up.
There’s unfortunately no TV coverage of today’s game. And the radio broadcast is streaming only.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. HOUSTON ASTROS
Where: CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches
Gametime: 1:05 p.m. EDT
TV: None
Radio: nationals.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 81 degrees, wind 16 mph in from right
NATIONALS
CF Dylan Crews
SS CJ Abrams
DH Brady House
RF James Wood
2B Luis García Jr.
LF Daylen Lile
3B Nasim Nuñez
1B Abimelec Ortiz
C Riley Adams
RHP Cade Cavalli
ASTROS
2B Jose Altuve
DH Yordan Alvarez
CF Cam Smith
LF Joey Loperfido
1B Riley Unroe
RF Lucas Spence
3B James Nelson
SS Jax Biggers
C César Salazar
RHP Mike Burrows
But wait, Cavalli wasn't done. He came back out for the fourth and retired the side again with two more strikeouts. So that's four innings on 51 pitches (33 strikes), allowing one unearned run and striking out six. And he did that against a pretty representative Astros lineup today. Impressive.
Really good start to Cade Cavalli's afternoon. He went six up, six down and struck out four. Things got a little hairy in the bottom of the third, though that was the result of three groundballs (two of them bunts) that weren't fielded cleanly. The Astros got one run out of it, but that's all. Cavalli has thrown 39 pitches (25 strikes) with a fastball that has averaged 97 mph and topped out at 99 mph.