With back-to-back gems, Cavalli is finding his groove
Cade Cavalli became only the fifth pitcher in club history with back-to-back, 10-strikeout games, leading the Nationals to a blowout win
NEW YORK – When will you know, Blake Butera was asked this afternoon, when Cade Cavalli has fully turned the corner and established who he is as a big-league starter?
“You probably have to do it more than once or twice to say, like: ‘Alright, this is real,’” the Nationals manager said. “Now, we know what he’s capable of. We’ve seen it. I think the last outing is the Cade we expect to see and want to see. But he’s got to do it a few times in a row for us to feel really good about: ‘Alright, he’s here. This is who he is.’”
No matter what happened tonight, Cavalli still has a ways to go to fully prove himself. But a six-inning, 10-strikeout performance during a 14-2 blowout win over the Mets sure helps keep the right-hander moving in the right direction, doesn’t it?
On the heels of the first double-digit strikeout game of his young career, Cavalli duplicated the feat on a cold, rainy night at Citi Field. He became the first Nationals pitcher with back-to-back, 10-strikeout games since Max Scherzer in 2020. He joined Gio Gonzalez, Patrick Corbin, Stephen Strasburg (who did it on six occasions) and Scherzer (who did it on a remarkable 20 occasions) as the only pitchers in club history to do it at all.
