This was definitely more interesting than your average Tuesday night game between teams from different leagues. Things got chippy and heated at Fenway Park. Through all of the chaos, Cade Cavalli delivered one of the most dominant starts you will ever see. He struck out 13, walked nobody, allowed one hit and got an insane 25 whiffs.
Tonight was by far the most dominant Cavalli
has ever looked. His fastball, which has been a bit of an issue for him at times, was just overwhelming Red Sox hitters. He 15 of his 25 whiffs on the heater. His fastball averaged 97.3 MPH, but I suspect it was more like 98 because he mixed in some pitches that looked like cutters but were classified as 4-seamers.
After getting in some trouble in the first inning and allowing an unearned run, Cavalli retired the last 19 hitters he faced. It was just an overwhelming display of power from a pitcher that has had to take a long path to get here. Cavalli had a very bumpy recovery from Tommy John, but his stuff still allowed fans to dream. Tonight was truly that dream becoming reality.
This is one of the most dominant starts by a Nats pitcher in the 2020’s, potentially the most dominant. The last time a Nats pitcher went at least 7 innings while striking out double digit hitters and allowing one hit or less was Max Scherzer back in 2018. Of course, those kinds of outings were par for the course for Mad Max, but we have not seen that kind of dominance since.
Cavalli really did look like Max Scherzer on that mound tonight. He was frothing from the mouth and stalking around the mound the same way Scherzer used to. Cavalli was also just blowing heaters by guys and mixing in filthy breaking balls like Max did as well.
One thing I don’t think Max ever did with the Nats was get into an all out brawl on the mound. That is what happened with Cavalli tonight. After Willson Contreras cut off Cavalli on his way off the mound, some bad blood emerged. Then Cavalli struck out Contreras in the 4th, and yelled “sit down boy” as he got off the mound.
While that was a bit out of pocket, Contreras took things over the top by charging the mound and throwing his helmet. Contreras has been in the center of a lot of dust ups in his career, so this is nothing new for him. Even last night, he had a huge bat flip and pumped his chest after a homer against former teammate Miles Mikolas. Later last night, he also got ejected. Tonight, he was in the middle of a brawl.
The way the Nats responded from that brawl was absolutely fantastic. At the time, they were down 1-0. After the dust up, the Nats outscored the Red Sox 8-0. Cavalli also channeled his emotions extremely well. It could have been easy to allow that incident to throw off his outing. In fact, it did the opposite and the big right hander thrived in the chaos and smiled as the Fenway Park crowd booed him.
Before the brawl, the Nats offense was sluggish, but between Connelly Early exiting the game and the juice from the skirmish, they got going. The bottom of the order did a lot of damage, with Daylen Lile and Keibert Ruiz each getting two hits. Ruiz had his fingerprints all over the game, for better or for worse. Despite getting thrown out on the bases again, it was mostly good though, as the Nats catcher drove in three runs.
The Nats scored 7 runs in the 7th and 8th innings. CJ Abrams put the cherry on top with a solo homer and the Nats tacked on a few more thanks to Ruiz and James Wood. The offense had not been as dynamic lately, but tonight was a good reminder of how quickly they can strike.
Between the brawl, Cavalli’s outing and the late inning offense, this was one of the best wins of the season. It sure fired me up and I bet the players are stocked as well. This could be one of those games that can really bring the team together.
Even the bullpen did a nice job in this one. It looked like Orlando Ribalta was going to make things interesting after allowing two straight hits. However, he quickly settled things down by getting a double play. In the 9th, Zak Kent, who I wrote about today, had a clean inning. That means, I did not jinx him, at least not yet. This was just a great team win, just with some added drama mixed in to spice things up.
