Photo by Jake Stephens/TalkNats

The phrase, ‘another day, another Nationals W’ hasn’t exactly been applicable much over the past years, but in the opening week of the Blake Butera era, that’s exactly what we’ve been saying. The Nationals rallied for a five-run eighth inning last night to down the Cardinals again, improving their record this spring to 4-0-1. The most important thing that a young roster needs to do is learn how to win, regardless of where that happens, so this week has to be an encouraging sign for all of us.

The Good

For the past few seasons, we’ve looked at Cade Cavalli as the potential ace of this Washington pitching staff, and the time for him to take that spot is now. He’s going to have to earn it this spring, and he took the first step towards doing that last night, throwing two scoreless innings in his spring debut, striking out one, and allowing just a walk. Cole Henry was the other promising returner from the pitching staff last night. Given that the Nationals don’t exactly have a closer decided yet, we have to imagine Henry is auditioning for that role this spring. His outing last night certainly had to help his case, pitching a 1-2-3 fifth inning, striking out two of those batters on an efficient 14 pitches.

Offensively, it was a pretty rough night, as the Nats plated six runs on only four hits. A combination of errors and walks helped Washington put together that winning rally in the eighth. The only returning big leaguer who did scratch across a hit last night was Keibert Ruiz, who had a single in a 1-3 night.

The New Guys

Now here’s the section that gives us some things to talk about from last night’s game. On the pitching side, Riley Cornelio posted a 3.28 ERA last season across three minor league levels, a true breakout season for the young righty. By the end of the season, Riley was making starts in Triple-A, just a short step away from the majors, and he showed last night why he may get to make that step sooner rather than later. Cornelio pitched the sixth and seventh innings out of the bullpen, tossing two scoreless innings with three strikeouts mixed in. An unexpected hit for the Nationals, who drafted Cornelio in the seventh round of the 2022 draft, keep your eyes out for this guy!

Another guy with a very similar story to Cornelio pitched the last two innings of last night’s game. Kyle Luckham was drafted in the 15th round of that same 2022 draft, and the right-hander also began to make some noise in the Nats’ system last season. Luckham reached Triple-A right around the same time Cornelio did last year, and put up very similar numbers while there. Luckham threw the final two innings last night, allowing no runs on one hit and striking out two. I will add he was much more efficient than Riley Cornelio was, as Luckham needed just 28 pitches to get his six outs. Either one of these right-handers making their big league debuts this season would be a massive win for the Nationals’ player development team, so keep an eye out for these two names.

Offensively, the name I want to highlight today is Cristhian Vaquero. The 21-year-old was a highly touted signing by the Nationals out of the Dominican, and was projected by many to be a real piece of the outfield at the big league level for Washington. Unfortunately, injuries and strikeouts have plagued him at the lower levels of the minors, and what was once a very promising prospect has begun to draw some cloudy speculation. The great news is that he’s still just 21 and still has that electric skillset that the Nationals identified in the Dominican, if he can put it all together. The big eighth-inning rally last night was punctuated by a two-run single by Vaquero, putting the game effectively out of reach, and giving us what would be our final score of 6-1.

What’s Next?

The Nationals are back in action tonight with yet another evening game. The boys will hit the road today and travel to Steinbrenner Field in Tampa to take on the Yankees at 6:35. It’ll be a battle of left-handers tonight, as Andrew Alvarez will make his spring debut tonight, squaring off against fellow southpaw Ryan Weathers. Alvarez is an interesting name to keep an eye on this spring. I would think that his performance in September of last season would have earned him a spot in the rotation, but none of that is certain, so he’ll be pitching with something to prove this spring. Let’s see if the Nationals can stay undefeated on the spring campaign, and put it to those pinstripes!