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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The emotions of his long-awaited return to the majors behind him at last, Cade Cavalli settled into life as a true big league pitcher tonight, taking the mound for his second start, confident he will be back out there for his third and plenty more before season’s end.
This one didn’t have the fairy tale ending last week’s return did.
Missing the precise command of his eye-popping arsenal he displayed against the Athletics, Cavalli was charged with four runs in five-plus innings tonight against the Royals, giving up a killer, game-tying homer to Salvador Perez before departing in the sixth.
Jackson Rutledge then gave up the game-winning homer, a two-run blast by No. 9 hitter Kyle Isbel that propelled Kansas City to an eventual 7-4 victory over the Nationals.
Given an opportunity to appear in a high-leverage spot in a tie game, Rutledge got a key double-play grounder but then allowed a two-out single to Nick Loftin before leaving a 2-1 sinker over the plate to Isbel, who launched it deep to right for the decisive moment of the game. (The Royals added an insurance run in the eighth off Orlando Ribalta.)
"For me, it was just trying to be efficient, trying to attack guys, try to go right at them. And I just made a bad pitch," said Rutledge, who saw his ERA rise to 6.41 in the process.
It was something of a return to reality for Cavalli and the Nats, who saw their brief, two-game winning streak come to an end while squandering a few opportunities to add to the lead they initially achieved behind early two-run homers from both Josh Bell and Paul DeJong.
The Nationals scored only two total runs in Cavalli’s return last week, and one of those came via CJ Abrams’ walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth. Tonight, they gave him two runs of support before he even took the mound, thanks to the latest in a series of big blasts by Bell.
After watching Abrams and DeJong each strike out looking following James Wood’s leadoff walk, Bell stepped up and pounced on a slider over the plate from Bailey Falter, sending the ball soaring to left-center for a two-run homer. Thus did Bell reach base for the 10th time in his last 13 plate appearances via his third home run as a right-handed hitter this season, two of them coming on this road trip.
"I've got to tell you, it's getting a little bit tough for me," interim manager Miguel Cairo said of the challenge of keeping both Bell and DeJong in his lineup while both are hot. "It's good to see JB and DeJong swinging the bat."
The Nats gave themselves several more chances to score off Falter, who entered a perfect 5-0 with a 2.23 ERA in nine career appearances (six starts) against them, but they stranded runners in scoring position both the second and fourth innings, after which the Royals turned to their bullpen.
That’s when DeJong did his damage. Facing another lefty in Daniel Lynch IV, the veteran infielder managed to drive an up-and-away changeup the other way, the ball carrying until it cleared the wall in right-center for his second home run in three days and a 4-2 lead for the Nationals.
"I think I just back-spun it the right way," DeJong said. "You see what the math is: With certain degrees and certain exit velos, the ball will go. I just kind of took my cues off the center fielder. He'll kind of give it away when it's going to be over the fence."
Turns out they needed more offense than that to support Cavalli on a night when he didn’t have the swing-and-miss stuff he showed in his season debut last week.
In that Wednesday start against the A’s, Cavalli induced 19 whiffs on 52 total swings, racking up six strikeouts in 4 1/3 impressive innings. Tonight, he induced only seven of them on 37 swings, often falling behind in the count and then struggling to put away hitters when he had the chance.
It wasn’t necessarily a bad start, and the Royals did a nice job at times just putting the bat on the ball and taking the opposite-field singles he was giving them. But it didn’t compare to last week’s game, both in terms of the stuff he displayed and the results he experienced.
"I didn't feel like I was as sharp," Cavalli said. "But that's just something you've got to pitch through. And I did my best doing that tonight."
Kansas City got two runs in the second via three straight singles, a four-pitch walk and a sacrifice fly. Cavalli did a nice job to limit the damage to that, recording his first strikeout of the night with a curveball to Mike Yastrzemski with two runners in scoring position in the second, then stranding Bobby Witt Jr. on third in the third. And when he quickly retired the side in the fifth, the right-hander walked off the mound with only the two runs and a modest pitch count of 75 to his name.
"It was really impressive," Cairo said. "I was just hoping he would keep the damage down, and he did. It was awesome to see him come out of there, his second start coming back to the big leagues. To do that, it was nice to see."
That pitch count convinced Cairo to send Cavalli back out there for the sixth, a decision that backfired. Cavalli opened the inning with a five-pitch walk of Maikel Garcia, prompting a mound visit from pitching coach Jim Hickey. Moments later, Perez did as he’s done so many times in his career and golfed a down-and-in pitch deep to left for the game-tying homer.
"I've got to give credit to him," Cavalli said. "He opened up to it, and he did what he's done historically with that pitch. I trusted it, and I threw it with conviction. I just obviously wish it was a different result. ... He's a Hall of Fame catcher for a reason. He got me tonight."
Thus did Cavalli find himself pulled from the game before he ever recorded an out in the sixth, charged with four runs on seven hits and three walks while striking out only three.
But he’s officially a full-time big leaguer now, the hoopla of his return now in the rearview mirror, the promise and the pressure of regular starts every five days now the challenge facing him.
"He has worked incredibly hard to be back here," said Rutledge, the Nationals' first-round pick in 2019, one year before Cavalli. "Obviously, he has the stuff for it. He's out there throwing 98-99 (mph) and putting the ball where he wants to. I'm just really happy to see him get the experience. Going forward, he's just going to get better."
