How many televisions were clicked off at the end of the 4ᵗʰ inning as the Washington Nationals were being no-hit? In the bottom of the 5ᵗʰ inning, there were signs of life and some extreme luck as contact turned into hits — and when the dust settled, the Nats had a 5-2 lead then 8-2, then 10-2, then 13-3 to set an MLB record as the first team in MLB history to win a game in March, April, May, June, July, and August by at least 10-runs.
The Nats had just given up the MLB lead for most runs scored on Sunday, and grabbed the top spot back from the Cubs on Monday. And most of the players who struggled in Miami like Daylen Lile, Jacob Young, Abimelec Ortiz, and Jorbit Vivas had at least one hit. Young broke up the no-hitter, and started the rally, and Lile put the exclamation point on it with a 3-run jack for 5 RBIs in this one.
They say hitting is contagious, and what started as a famine turned into a feast. Dylan Crews might not have recorded a hit, but he had three walks that included an RBI via a bases loaded walk. Nasim Nunez really got things happening with a bunt that he could have been called out (quite easily) for obstruction as he was running on the grass — but the ump didn’t see it that way, and two runs scored on that wild throwing error.
And how’s about Cade Cavalli. He didn’t have his “A” stuff on Monday night, but the final box score sure didn’t look that way. He notched another quality start (his 9ᵗʰ in a row), and earned the win to go 12-5 on his season with 6.0 full innings completed that shoved his ERA down to 3.21 for 14ᵗʰ best in all of MLB.
Yes, Cavalli needed run support in this one to notch the win and got it in the bottom of the 5ᵗʰ inning. Cavalli looked like a new pitcher in the 6ᵗʰ inning to get two strikeouts to finish strong. Maybe he just needed some extra motivation from his offense.
“We’ve been struggling to score runs, right? I think once we kind of cracked it open a little bit and some runs started crossing the plate, you could kind of sense some energy and almost a weight off the shoulders: ‘All right, now we go.’”
— manager Blake Butera said after the game
Also, the Nats were on a slide of four consecutive losses without CJ Abrams who had been nursing an ankle injury. He started this game as the DH, and hit a key double in this one. The ankle must have been fine as he notched two steals to up his season total to 26. Abrams joined Pete Crow-Armstrong as the only players this season with at least 25 home runs and 25 stolen bases.
The lineup just looks much tougher with Abrams in there. Of course James Wood is now over three weeks on the sidelines with an oblique injury. Could you imagine if the Nats had him in the lineup too?
“He’s one of the best players in the league, so whenever you’re missing him, you feel it as a group. Just him being in the lineup, his presence in the lineup takes some weight off a lot of guys’ shoulders and also just makes the whole group feel good about the game.”
— Butera said about Abrams
Can the Nats keep Monday’s momentum going forward? The Nats have 62 wins on the season. One more win assures them of avoiding a 100 loss season, and 11 more wins guarantees they won’t have a 90+ loss season for the first time in a full-season since 2019. With 29 games to go, that seems doable. While the odds of making the playoffs are between slim-and-none, improvement is a key here. Winning is improvement.
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