Cade Cavalli Throws Nationals Crucial Lifeline
The Washington Nationals have spent the first third of the season fighting hard to be mediocre, but over the past week, the team's pitching has finally caught up to its potent offense, and now it's punching above its weight class.
The Nats have a chance to sweep the road series against the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday after taking Tuesday's game two 6-3 off the back of a brilliant day on the mound from Cade Cavalli, the young flamethrower the team expected to be its Ace this season.
Cavalli finally became a regular starter last season after injuries in the minors derailed the 27-year-old's development. He had an uneven 2025 and an equally sporadic start to 2026.
But since he gave up 4 earned runs in 1.1 innings against the Pirates on April 13, Cavalli hasn't given up more than 3 earned runs in any of his last 8 starts. He's gone at least 6 innings in each of his last three starts after only doing that once over his first seven.
The turnaround has been crucial for the Nats, given so far this season, the team boasts a dismal 4.72 team earned run average, fifth worst in the major leagues.
Cavalli turns up the heat for the Nationals
Cavalli's fastball was touching 99 mph Tuesday afternoon. Mixing in a nasty knuckle curve ball to complement the heater, Cavalli was able to fan seven batters over his six innings while allowing just five hits, one earned run, and two walks.
So far during his brief Nats career, Cavalli's biggest bugaboo has been that when he starts to struggle, the wheels tend to come all the way off. Games where he is cruising will suddenly turn into a struggle session that he can't find a way out of. However, he has responded well to adversity over his last three starts.
On Tuesday, Cavalli ran into some trouble in the 5th inning when he allowed a leadoff single to Steve Kwan. After striking out the next batter, Cavalli gave up a single and a walk to load the bases. It seemed like once again the wheels were coming off what had been a stellar performance up until that point.
But he responded by inducing a lazy flyball to left field that brought in the only run he allowed all day. He escaped the inning without allowing any more damage. He struck out his 7th batter in the 6th inning with a 99 mph fastball that was his hardest of the game and handed his team a comfortable lead going into the final three frames.
Nationals' playoff chances stay strong
For the season, Cavalli is sporting a respectable 3.62 ERA across 59.2 innings pitched in 10 starts. But the bigger story is the upstart Nats, who aren't just feasting on the dregs of the league as one might expect after they went 4-0-1 in their last 5 series.
The Guardians are the second straight division leader the Nats have knocked off after also beating the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves over the weekend. Not bad for a team Fangraphs projected to win 63 games this year.
Coming into this series, the Guardians' pitching had been absolute nails. The team hadn't allowed more than 3 runs in a game since May 16. The Nats have put up 10 and 6 on them so far.
Starting pitcher Joey Cantillo came into the game not having given up more than 4 earned runs in any of his starts this year. The Nats had 4 runs on the board by the second inning.
The Nats are two games over .500 and have a narrow one-game lead over the Phillies for the second spot in the division. The Nats were always gonna ride the hot bats as far as they could take them this year. Now that the pitching has joined the party, that destination could be a lot farther than anyone could have imagined when the season started.
Related: Nats take page out of Dodgers handbook in Guardians rout
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This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 10:06 AM.