First off, the Washington Nationals won their 72nd game with 8-games remaining in the 2026 season. That win total is the best by a Nats’ team since the 2019 World Series season. Again, the season is not over, and the Nats have already improved their win total by 9.1 percent over last year. And this Nats team did all of this with a payroll that decreased by $17 million from last year. Sure, you could say if they spent a lot of money on a better bullpen who knows. Coulda, shoulda, woulda.
The accomplishments are real by most of this squad, and starter Cade Cavalli signed a new contract extension today — and then went out to the mound and pitched 5.0 scoreless against the Cardinals with only four hits, zero walks, and six strikeouts. In fact, the 6th strikeout was Cavalli’s 200th of this season. That milestone put Cavalli in rare company in Nats history with some icons of Nats pitching lore: Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Patrick Corbin, and Gio Gonzalez.
With Cavalli’s 5.0 scoreless innings, he also shoved his ERA all the way down to 3.02 on the season. That ERA mark improved Cavalli to 13th in MLB this season for qualified starting pitchers. That is ace stuff. He will have one more start to finish his 2026 season and that will give Cavalli the opportunity to get that ERA under 2.99 with a great outing next week.
“I was watching him pitch and hoping he would get to 200 strikeouts. Pretty cool day [for Cade Cavalli].”
— manager Blake Butera said
“[CJ Abrams] is unbelievable. He went 30-30-30. I think he’s the 53rd player in MLB history to do that and the second Nationals player.”
Now let’s talk about the Nats offense. CJ Abrams stole his 30th base to give him a 30-30-30 season with 30 home runs and doubles. That puts Abrams in a club with just Alfonso Soriano to notch that feat. Of course Soriano went 40-40-40 in 2006.
The Nats scored 3-runs in the first inning and that was their best run output since August 7. By the third inning, the Nats had 7-runs on the board. The Nats added more for nine runs total. It was really the entire lineup that did damage either by hits, walks, or a sacrifice fly. Dylan Crews had a single and an oppo home run in his first two at-bats to lead the charge.
Of special note, Josiah Gray was called up today, and he entered the game in the ninth inning with a 9-1 Nats lead. A good low leverage outing for his first one, and he notched a scoreless frame. This was Gray’s first MLB appearance since April 4, 2024. That is over 2 years and 5 months between MLB games due to a series of injuries including TJ surgery.
The Nats will send lefty Andrew Alvarez to the mound tomorrow against the Cardinals. He looks to improve on his impressive 2026 campaign.
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