Instant Analysis: Pirates 16, Nats 5

Cade Cavalli didn't make it out of the second inning, and the Nationals bullpen turned the rest of this game into a rout

Photo by Billy Sabatini / ALL-PRO REELS

PITTSBURGH – This looked on paper like a possible premier pitching matchup to open a four-game series between two up-and-coming teams. Except only one side of the equation showed up. While Paul Skenes carved up the Nationals lineup with ease, Cade Cavalli couldn’t even make it out of the second inning, leaving an already tired bullpen to take a beating the rest of the night during what devolved into a blowout win for the Pirates.

Cavalli threw only 24 of his 48 pitches for strikes, giving up four runs in 1 1/3 innings. Paxton Schultz tried to stop the bleeding, allowing just a solo homer to Spencer Horwitz over 2 2/3 innings. But Jackson Rutledge, summoned from Triple-A Rochester today to help provide bullpen depth, was rocked for seven runs while throwing 44 pitches over 1 1/3 innings. Brad Lord, pressed into service, gave up four more runs during Pittsburgh’s 10-run explosion in the bottom of the sixth. How bad did it get? Joey Wiemer took the mound for the bottom of the eighth, though the outfielder somehow managed to give up just one run despite throwing only 10 of his 21 eephus pitches for strikes.

Skenes, meanwhile, gave up a first-inning homer to CJ Abrams but nothing else over six dominant innings that included six strikeouts. Already trailing by two touchdowns by the time the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner departed, the Nats did try to put together a spirited rally and scored four runs in the top of the seventh thanks in part to Jacob Young’s homer. But that was far too little and far too late to make this game competitive.

HITTING HIGHLIGHT: OK, so there weren’t many to choose from in this game. But Abrams deserves some love for his first-inning blast. Skenes had just struck out both James Wood and Luis Garcia Jr., but Abrams followed with a highly competitive at-bat. He nearly homered on a curveball that was well inside the strike zone, the ball hooking just foul down the right-field line. No problem, because he then got a 99.5-mph fastball over the plate and mashed it into the bleachers for his fifth homer of the season. Abrams also took Skenes to the warning track in center his next time up, proving it is actually possible to make good contact against the world’s best pitcher … despite what his teammates’ performance tonight suggested.

PITCHING LOWLIGHT: Even though he came into this start with decent bottom-line results, Cavalli admittedly had been flirting with disaster all along. Only three times in his first 14 full innings had he retired the side, and he didn’t do it in either of his two innings tonight. Cavalli managed to wriggle out of the jam in the first with back-to-back strikeouts, but he came nowhere close to doing that in the second. Unable to locate anything, he issued three walks while allowing three singles. And with his pitch count rising, Blake Butera decided to pull the plug right there. It’s the last thing the manager wanted to do, given how much he’s had to use his bullpen. But he also wasn’t going to let his young ace throw 40 pitches in one inning.

NOTABLE: Nationals starters are averaging only 4.27 innings per game, second-fewest in the NL.

UP NEXT: The series continues Tuesday at 6:40 p.m., with Miles Mikolas the announced starter for the Nats but Mitchell Parker possibly available either as an opener or bulk reliever if he’s activated off the taxi squad. Right-hander Mitch Keller starts for the Pirates. TV: Nationals TV RADIO: 106.7 FM