There haven’t been a lot of things to get excited about recently involving the Nationals, so perhaps tonight’s game provides a long-awaited reason to feel better about the state of things. Cade Cavalli makes his return to the major leagues, nearly three years removed from his one and only major league start. It’s been a long road back from Tommy John surgery and inconsistent performances in the minors, and it’s not like the 26-year-old has been in peak form at Triple-A Rochester leading up to this one. But he's here regardless, and the hope is he’s here to stay at last.

What to watch for with Cavalli: Can he get outs on pitches in or near the strike zone? One criticism of him coming up through the minors was that he relied too much on getting opposing hitters to chase out of the zone. It’s much harder to get big league hitters to do that, so Cavalli needs to be precise with his command. The good news: Even though he was giving up hits at Triple-A, he was recording a good number of strikeouts while keeping his walk total low.

The Nats would love to provide their still-rookie starter with some run support. And that doesn’t mean ninth-inning run support with the team already trailing by a bunch. Early support to give him a lead to work with. Of course, at some point Miguel Cairo is still going to have to hand over the rest of the game to this bullpen. Who knows how that’s going to go?

ATHLETICS at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 75 degrees, wind 8 mph in from right field

ATHLETICS
C Shea Langeliers
1B Nick Kurtz
DH Brent Rooker
RF JJ Bleday
LF Tyler Soderstrom
SS Darell Hernaiz
CF Lawrence Butler
3B Gio Urshela
2B Max Schuemann

LHP Jeffrey Springs

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
2B Paul DeJong
DH Josh Bell
1B Nathaniel Lowe
3B Brady House
C Riley Adams
RF Robert Hassell III
CF Jacob Young

RHP Cade Cavalli