Game Preview: RHP Cade Cavalli makes this major league debut tonight as the Washington Nationals face the Cincinnati Reds

The Washington Nationals will face the Cincinnati Reds at the start of a three-game weekend series, with RHP Cade Cavalli making his MLB Debut

by Richard Wachtel

Updated August 26, 2022

Washington D.C. - The Washington Nationals will face the Cincinnati Reds at the start of a three-game weekend series. Usually, a Friday night game towards the end of August with a team out of the playoff picture wouldn't garner much attention. However, tonight's game will feature the major league debut of RHP Cade Cavalli.

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Cavalli, 24, was the No. 22 overall selection in 2020. The Oklahoma native and former Sooner have enjoyed a solid season in Triple-A Rochester, where he’s notched a 3.71 ERA with a 25.9% strikeout rate, a 9.7% walk rate, and a 43.1% grounder rate. Cavalli has gotten more comfortable in Triple-A and gotten stronger as the season wore on, after some rocky outings throughout his first 13 trips to the mound.

The Washington Nationals return home from a six-game West Coast road trip to San Diego (2–2) and Seattle (1–1) for a six-game homestand against the Cincinnati Reds and Oakland Athletics. The Nationals earned the series split with the Mariners on Wednesday afternoon thanks to a go-ahead ninth-inning home run by Ildemaro Vargas. The 3-3 road trip was the Nationals' third .500 or better in their last five road trips, joining June 21-26 at Baltimore and Texas (3-2) and July 22-27 at Arizona and Los Angeles (NL) (3-3).

Game Notes

In 19 games since making his Major League debut on Aug. 2, Joey Meneses is hitting .324 (24-for-74) with two doubles, six home runs, eight RBI, three walks, and 13 runs scored.
RHP Cade Cavalli will get the start tonight. He faces the Reds in his Major League debut today and will be the seventh player (ﬁfth ﬁrst-round pick) from the 2020 Draft to make his Major League debut.
Washington's bullpen has pitched to a 2.01 ERA (9 ER/40.1 IP) with 48 strikeouts and a .158 opponents' batting average over the last 11 games. The bullpen has issued just four walks with 20 strikeouts over the last five games.
A Nationals starting pitcher has not been credited with a win since Josiah Gray on July 6 at Philadelphia - a span of 41 games. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, 41 straight games played without earning a win by a starting pitcher is the longest such streak in Major League Baseball history.