A scary moment for all Washington Nationals fans occurred last night, not in Washington D.C. but up in Rochester, New York as the number one Washington Nationals prospect RHP Cade Cavalli exited last night's Rochester Red Wings game with an apparent injury.
After his 49th pitch of the game, Cavalli motioned for the Rochester coaching and training staff, and then he left the game after everyone looked at the right-hander's hand. Dan Glickman, who writes Pickinsplinters.com wrote: "some piece of skin had gotten pulled off his finger. While Cavalli wanted to continue, the Wings coaching and training staff decided to be on the safe side."
After the game, Red Wings coach Matt LeCroy addressed the events with Cavalli: "He had a little thing on his finger... it wasn’t really a blister, it was a little small piece of skin that got pulled off of his finger. He wanted to keep going, but we thought it would be best not to. I think we got it at the right time, so I don’t think it’s going to be an issue." LeCroy went further and said, "I didn’t think it’d be a good time to keep pitching; it looked kind of fresh [and] it was just big enough to be a problem for him."
The Red Wings went on to win the game 5-2. 3B Jake Alu hit an RBI-double to give Rochester the lead in the first Triple-A plate appearance of his career...the 25-year-old came into tonight's game leading the Nationals organization in doubles with 25.
Additionally, CF Andrew Stevenson hit a three-run blast to right field in the bottom of the second to give Rochester a 4-0 lead. The home run was Stevenson's first since becoming a dad, his last coming on June 23 (vs. SYR, ten games between HRs). Stevenson now has seven long-balls this year, five of which have come at Frontier Field. The Red Wings bullpen and relievers combined to go 5.1 innings, striking out eight and allowing just one earned run. LHP Alberto Baldonado and RHP Tyler Clippard recorded the last six outs, striking the side in the eighth and ninth, respectively.
Clippard earned his first save of the year in the win, with his last coming on June 15, 2009 (39 Triple-A appearances between saves)...the veteran has 74 career saves in the Big Leagues.
The Rochester Red Wings are now 45-40 on the season and remain a game back in the International League East. They return to play on Wednesday, with Carson Teel expected to take the mound to start.