Cade Cavalli Entered Rare Nationals Air With His Gem Against the Mets
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The Washington Nationals finally got a positive development when it came to the performance of Cade Cavalli during his start against the Atlanta Braves on April 23 when he struck out a career-high 10 batters.
It was a step in the right direction for the 27-year-old, as he went into that outing with an aggressive mindset to dominate the strike zone. And that produced the best start of his MLB career. But with him set to take the mound on April 29 against the New York Mets, it wasn't clear how Cavalli was going to perform since he hadn't had a consistent season to date.
However, the 2020 first-round pick delivered yet another gem. With two earned runs allowed across six innings pitched, he recorded his first win of the 2026 campaign and also reached the 10-strikeout mark once again.
Cade Cavalli Joins Elite List by Striking Out 10 Batters in Back-to-Back Games
By recording double-digit K's in back-to-back starts, Cavalli put himself amongst a list of franchise greats. Per Mark Zuckerman of Nats Journal, he became the fifth pitcher in Nationals history to record 10 strikeouts in consecutive outings, joining Max Scherzer -- who did it 20 times -- Stephen Strasburg -- who did it six times -- Patrick Corbin and Gio Gonzalez.
That isn't a bad group to join, and while Corbin gets a bad rap for how his tenure in Washington went after he helped the team win the World Series in 2019, he also is a two-time All-Star and finished fifth in NL Cy Young voting following the 2018 season.
As for the rest of the names on the list, the Nationals can only hope that Cavalli turns into some type of version of those pitchers during his career. Gonzalez was an All-Star with Washington and finished third in NL Cy Young voting. He had a 3.62 ERA across 213 starts with the team and owned an ERA+ that was 12 points above the league average. Strasburg is a franchise legend who would have been a Hall of Famer if it wasn't for injuries. And Scherzer is one of the best starters of this generation, who likely will be a first ballot Hall of Famer when his time comes.
Nationals Need Cavalli to Keep Things Rolling
But that's for the future. Right now, the Nationals just need Cavalli to keep building on what he's done in these last two starts. The 27-year-old is still learning about what it takes to be successful at the major league level, as Tommy John surgery caused him to enter this season with only 11 MLB starts and 53 innings to his name.
Hopefully these last two outings are signs of things to come. Because during those two starts, the right-hander displayed why this regime believes they can build a rotation around him.
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Brad Wakai graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Journalism. While an undergrad, he worked at the student radio station covering different Penn State athletic programs like football, basketball, volleyball, soccer and other sports. Brad became the Lead Contributor for Nittany Lions Wire of Gannett Media where he continued to cover Penn State athletics. Currently, Brad is the Publisher for Washington Nationals On SI and covers multiple teams across the On SI network. He is the host of the sports podcast I Said What I Said, where he and his co-host discuss topics across the NFL, College Football, the NBA and other sports. You can follow him on Twitter: @bwakai