MIAMI – Cade Cavalli last stepped on a mound on June 21 with High-A Wilmington. It was the third – and last – of his official rehab starts as he continued his recovery from last year’s Tommy John surgery. And it was the most encouraging of his rehab outings to date: He pitched three scoreless, hitless innings.

The initial target date for his major league return was in late June/early July, which was established after his March 2023 surgery. It was approaching and there was legitimate hope he would rejoin the Nationals rotation for the second half of the season.

But that target date and Cavalli’s whole rehab process was shaken up by a subsequent case of the flu and a period in which he experienced “dead arm” when he threw a ball.

“We shot for a date and we tried everything possible to get there. And sometimes the arm just doesn't respond like we wanted it to,” said Cavalli, who once again met the Nats in Miami from the team’s spring training facility in West Palm Beach, where he was rehabbing. “It wasn't anything horrible. Good news is we're still healthy. Just had to slow it down a little bit. It's part of the TJ recovery, as you know. It's 15 to 18 months for a reason, so we're just taking it slow and easy. Making sure that it's right and that it's the right time when I get back, so that we don't have to have another setback, hopefully.”

Setbacks happen in long rehab processes. Cavalli and the Nats just didn’t expect him to have two of them in quick succession when he was sick and then felt like he wasn’t throwing as well as he should have at that point in the rehab.

MIAMI – Hopefully, the Nationals used an off-day on Labor Day to reset and forget about this weekend’s series against the Cubs, in which they were swept in three games at home. Maybe spending the rare holiday off-day in the South Florida sunshine is just what they needed.

And what better way to shake off a home sweep than a division rival that you are perfect against this season? That’s right, after struggling against the Marlins over the past couple of years, the Nats enter this quick two-game set 7-0 against the National League East basement-dwellers.

Patrick Corbin will look to extend his streak of back-to-back impressive outings when he takes the ball tonight. Corbin finally earned that elusive 100th career win by holding the Rockies to one run over six innings on Aug. 22. He followed that up with six shutout innings against the Yankees last week. The lefty was roughed up for seven runs (four earned) in four innings when he started here on April 28, but the Nats offense backed him up and stormed back for a 12-9 win.

Max Meyer will make his 11th start of the season for the Fish. The rookie right-hander is 3-4 with a 5.44 ERA and 1.383 WHIP this season. He has yet to face the Nats in his young career and has given up at least four runs in five of his last six starts.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at MIAMI MARLINS
Where: loanDepot park
Gametime: 6:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, DC 87.7 (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Indoors

The Nationals are getting their most durable reliever back for the season’s final month.

Derek Law, the workhorse setup man who landed on the injured list two weeks ago with a flexor strain in his right elbow, was activated Monday and will be available for tonight’s series opener in Miami.

Law was confident all along his IL stint would be short, and indeed he was back throwing within a week of being shut down. He threw 20 pitches to live hitters Saturday and pronounced himself ready to return. The Nats acquiesced, activating him without first requiring a minor league rehab stint.

Even with the time missed, Law still leads all National League relievers with 75 2/3 innings pitched. If he returns to his normal work rate, he would become the Nationals’ first reliever to reach 90 innings pitched since Tyler Clippard in 2010. And if he can throw 17 2/3 innings in the season’s final 25 games, he will eclipse Saul Rivera’s club record of 93 relief innings pitched in 2007.

Needing to clear a spot on the active roster for Law, the Nats optioned right-hander Orlando Ribalta to Triple-A Rochester following Sunday’s game. The rookie has struggled in four big league appearances over the last several weeks, allowing five runs and 10 hits in only 3 1/3 innings.

As he stood before a locker with his nameplate, a Nationals jersey with his name on it, inside a big league clubhouse for the first time, Zach Brzykcy was asked what he would’ve thought if someone predicted this outcome for him four years ago when he was a junior at Virginia Tech.

“I would’ve laughed at them,” he said. “Like, no way is this going to happen.”

That Brzykcy did find himself at Nationals Park on Sunday was a remarkable story. Undrafted out of college. Owner of a 5.20 ERA in his first professional season. Sidelined for his entire third pro season following Tommy John surgery. And now a big league reliever, officially promoted from Triple-A Rochester as one of the Nats’ two September call-ups.

“Speechless,” the 25-year-old right-hander said of his reaction to learning the news Saturday from Rochester manager Matt LeCroy. “I’m kind of a quiet guy, so I didn’t even know what to think. I internalized it, and I was just mind blown. I’ve been working for this since I was 4 to be here, and I’m here. It’s just surreal. There’s no words to describe the feeling.”

Brzykcy (pronounced “BRICK-see”) might seem an unlikely addition to the Nationals bullpen, but he earned his way here. He was a casualty of the COVID pandemic, both because his junior season at Virginia Tech ended in mid-March with only nine appearances and because Major League Baseball reduced the 2020 Draft to a mere five rounds.

If managers preach to their teams they can’t give the opposition more than 27 outs, what do they say about giving them 32 outs?

Truth be told, it probably never comes up, because how often does a team make five defensive gaffes in one nine-inning game? At the major league level, nonetheless.

What, then, will Davey Martinez have to say to his players after today’s 14-1 dismantling by the Cubs, one that was defined not by the hits the Nationals gave up or failed to produce themselves but by the five misplays they made in the field during their least aesthetically pleasing game of the season?

"We're going to pound the same message: We've got to catch the baseball," the manager said in one of the more animated postgame sessions of his seven-year tenure here. "It was awful today. I can't say nothing about it. Our defense was not there. I thought (Mitchell Parker) threw the ball really well. We've got to play defense behind him. You can't drive in runs and let in three or four more runs. You've got to catch the baseball. Defense is a big part of the game. I say that all the time. We've got to catch the ball."

Martinez has had to confront these questions before, but usually as it pertains to one or maybe two plays during the course of a game. Five? This was unprecedented, leaving him to answer how he planned to deliver the aforementioned message to his players.

Darren Baker didn’t need an alarm to wake himself up this morning. He didn’t need a GPS to find his way to Nationals Park. And when he entered the clubhouse, he didn’t need to introduce himself to many people.

If ever a rookie felt at home on his first day in the major leagues, this was it.

“I think it does feel comfortable, especially this one,” he said. “I knew how to get here. I didn’t have to put it into my phone or anything. So I felt comfortable just showing up.”

Baker, who along with reliever Zach Brzykcy was promoted from Triple-A Rochester this morning as the Nationals’ two allotted September call-ups with rosters expanding to 28, has been a familiar face around Nationals Park since 2016. And he’s been a familiar face around big league ballparks and clubhouse since 2002.

Such is life when you’re Dusty Baker’s son. With a famous father who spent most of the last two decades managing in San Francisco, Chicago, Cincinnati, Washington and Houston, Darren Baker has been immersed in the baseball world his whole life. Fans first knew about him in the 2002 World Series, when as a 3-year-old Giants batboy he memorably had to be scooped up J.T. Snow before getting run over on a play at the plate.

There unquestionably is more young talent on the Nationals roster right now than there has been in years, and that alone is reason for more optimism than this franchise has offered in years.

Talent alone, of course, doesn’t win ballgames. Execution is required, especially in the moments that matter the most. And for some talented young players, that second part takes time to develop. If it ever does.

Today’s 5-3 loss to the Cubs was a game that was there for the taking. Alas, it slipped away from the home team because of a bad ending to a great start by DJ Herz, two more outs made on the bases at a time when the Nats needed baserunners, a particularly bad error by a rookie catcher and another inspiring but ultimately unsuccessful ninth-inning rally.

Put it all together, and you get a second straight narrow loss to Chicago, even if there have been several positive developments the last 24 hours by key young players.

"These things are worked on. It's just, the game speeds up," manager Davey Martinez said. "To me, we did make some mistakes today. But the big thing is, yesterday, one inning we gave it up. Today, one inning we gave it up. They’re going to have to learn how to get through these innings and limit the damage. That’s the big thing. The other things will clean up with time. ... Right now, we’re just making small mistakes. And as they play a little more, and play more and play more, they’ll start learning those mistakes become big mistakes in games like this."

Derek Law appears ready to return from his brief stint on the injured list. Trevor Williams needs some more time but took a big step in his return from the IL today.

Law and Williams each faced live hitters this afternoon prior to the Nationals’ game against the Cubs, the first time each right-hander had done that since going on the 15-day IL with flexor strains in their elbows.

Law, out since Aug. 17, threw 20 pitches over one simulated inning against teammates Ildemaro Vargas and Nasim Nuñez. He said everything felt strong and that he believes his two-week layoff helped give his arm and body a rare chance to rest after a workhorse season. (His 75 2/3 innings pitched lead all major league relievers.)

“Think about it. This is like the first time your body’s getting a full amount of time off,” Law said, citing advice he got from pitching strategist Sean Doolittle. “It’s almost like you’re in spring training again, instead of the grind of the season, where you’re trying to manipulate your body to throw how it should be throwing.

“I was definitely throwing different ways to try to get around the elbow (before going on the IL). So it’s nice to feel free, I guess.”

Friday night was a wild one for the Nationals, who saw Jake Irvin give up seven runs to the Cubs in the top of the second, then Irvin and a parade of relievers give up nothing the rest of the way, then the lineup rally to score three runs in the ninth and put the winning run on base with two outs and Dylan Crews at the plate … only to watch him strike out to end the game. Enough drama for you?

So, what does today’s game have in store? There’s an obvious storyline to watch: DJ Herz facing the Cubs. The rookie left-hander came up through Chicago’s system before he was dealt to the Nats last summer for Jeimer Candelario, and now he gets to face his former team for the first time. Herz has been solid this month, with a 2.22 ERA and 1.192 WHIP, though he’s averaging fewer than five innings per start.

Davey Martinez again has a lineup with Dylan Crews and James Wood at the top and CJ Abrams not near the top. Abrams does move up one spot today, from seventh to sixth, against Cubs right-hander Javier Assad. But clearly his drop down the order Friday night wasn’t simply a matchup situation against a left-hander. This is going to remain this way a while longer until Abrams gets himself back on track.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs CHICAGO CUBS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 86 degrees, wind 8 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
RF Dylan Crews
LF James Wood
2B Luis García Jr.
DH Andrés Chaparro
3B José Tena
SS CJ Abrams
1B Joey Gallo
C Drew Millas
CF Jacob Young

CJ Abrams has been the Nationals’ primary leadoff hitter since July 7, 2023. When he wasn’t leading off, he was hitting second.

Until last night when manager Davey Martinez moved his All-Star shortstop down to the No. 7 hole. The idea was simple: Take some pressure off the young star so he can break out of this slump that is endangering his overall season.

Since July 7, the one-year anniversary of his promotion to the leadoff spot, Abrams’ season has been going in a downward spiral. Over 41 games entering last night, he slashed .169/.239/.288 with a .526 OPS, five doubles, one triple, four home runs, 16 RBIs, eight walks and 42 strikeouts.

“I was hoping that he worked some things out and got out of the funk,” Martinez said of the lineup change decision. “I wanted to see how he reacted to everything. And it's been going on for a while. I've been wanting to do it for a while. And I thought, let's do it now and see if we can get him back so he finishes the season off strong. … Nothing wrong with it. I told him, ‘Hey, you’re gonna play. You’re our starting shortstop. Just remember one thing: When the game starts after the first inning, you become a hitter. That’s it.’”

Abrams started last night’s game against the Cubs 0-for-3 with two strikeouts while batting seventh.

The Nationals were riding high this week. They saw another one of their top prospects make his major league debut on Monday, then proudly watched him lead a group of other young stars in beating the Yankees twice in three games.

But the Cubs entered this series riding high, too. They found themselves back over .500 and slowly nearing the playoff race again as winners of nine of their last 12 games coming into tonight’s three-game series opener on South Capitol Street.

In the end, only one team could keep the good times rolling with another win, and unfortunately for the home team it was the visitors who came away with a 7-6 victory in front of 28,792 fans on a misty, breezy night at Nationals Park.

Something had to give between the Nats rotation and Cubs offense to start this holiday weekend set.

Nationals starters have combined to post a 1.94 ERA and 1.098 WHIP while striking out more than one batter per inning and never once allowing more than two earned runs over their last nine games. Cubs hitters have combined to score 73 runs over their last seven games, averaging 10.4 runs per game.

It’s been a good week for the Nationals. It’s always nice to take two of three from the Yankees, but it’s especially nice to do so with your top prospect making his major league debut and leading the charge with other cornerstone young players.

Now the Nats welcome the Cubs for three games over this holiday weekend. Chicago is barely holding onto hope of a postseason berth, entering this series 9 ½ games back of the Brewers in the National League Central and five games back of the final NL Wild Card spot.

Jake Irvin looks to become the first Nationals pitcher to reach 10 wins this season when he takes the ball tonight. The right-hander will also try to continue a strong streak by Nats starters, who have combined to post a 1.94 ERA and 1.098 WHIP while striking out more than one batter per inning and never once allowing more than two earned runs over the last nine games.

Shota Imanaga will get the ball from Craig Counsell to oppose Irvin on the hill. The 30-year-old Japanese left-hander is in the running for NL Rookie of the Year with a 10-3 record and 3.08 ERA in 24 starts during an All-Star campaign.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. CHICAGO CUBS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, DC 87.7 (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Cloudy, 78 degrees, wind 9 mph in from right-center field

While Dylan Crews and James Wood have commanded the spotlight this week, and rightfully so, the Nationals are focusing on ensuring two of their other young stars have strong finishes to the season. And in different ways.

Davey Martinez’s lineup for tonight’s opener against the Cubs features one major change and a noticeable absence: CJ Abrams was bumped all the way down to the seventh spot in the order and Luis García Jr. on the bench with left-hander Shota Imanaga starting for Chicago.

For the first time this season, Abrams is not batting in one of the top two spots in the lineup. In fact, it’s the first time the young shortstop has started a game this low in the order since July 6, 2023, when he hit eighth against the Reds. The following day, he was moved up to the leadoff spot, where he performed well for a strong second half of last season and hit for much of this year.

“Just want to give him a little breather. I want him to relax a little bit,” Martinez said during his pregame media session. “Just start working better at-bats. As you know, he's been chasing a lot. I just want him to kind of slow down a little bit. So I talked to him before I sent the lineup out. He's good with it. Like I said, when you start getting on base and taking your walks, I want you to get back up there. But we need to slow you down a little bit. He's just swinging a lot.”

Up until July 7, the one-year anniversary of his promotion to the leadoff spot, Abrams was slashing .282/.353/.506 with an .860 OPS, 21 doubles, five triples, 14 home runs, 46 RBIs, 29 walks and 14 stolen bases. The Nats are trying to get him back to doing what he did to earn his first All-Star selection.

The month of August is about to wrap up this weekend, which means it’s been a full month since the trade deadline. Which means enough time has passed to start evaluating how trades worked out.

Of course, it takes years to know if a trade truly was worth it or not. But in the Nationals’ case, it’s worth checking in on the results of Mike Rizzo’s four deadline deals to see how they look at this point.

(Spoiler alert: They look pretty good at this early stage of the process.)

HUNTER HARVEY to ROYALS for CAYDEN WALLACE and CALEB LOMAVITA
Rizzo surprised everyone by making this deal 17 days before the July 30 deadline, but there was a good reason for it. He wanted Kansas City’s “Competitive Balance A” pick in the following night’s Draft. So in addition to Wallace, a promising-but-injured third base prospect, the Nationals also got the No. 39 pick, which they used on Lomavita, an intriguing catcher from Cal.

Wallace, who was dealing with a fractured rib at the time, just finally made his organizational debut Thursday night, delivering an RBI single and drawing a walk for Single-A Wilmington. He’ll look to finish the season strong and then come to spring training next year trying to move up the organizational ladder.

It was undoubtedly the best development of the first half of the Nationals season, a young starting rotation that seemed to break through as one, four potential building blocks all succeeding at the big league level and offering real hope for the near future.

And things turned south for all four of them as the summer progressed. MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin no longer looked like All-Stars. Mitchell Parker and DJ Herz looked like rookies with a lot of things that still needed to be ironed out.

So consider the last week-plus a key turning point for that group, which along with veteran Patrick Corbin has turned dominant again.

Over their last nine games, Nationals starters have combined to post a 1.94 ERA and 1.098 WHIP, striking out more than one batter per inning and never once allowing more than two earned runs.

Everyone in the quintet has contributed to the resurgence, but Gore’s part in this play – capped off by Wednesday night’s win over the Yankees – has been the most encouraging.

It's too soon to know if the events of the last 72 hours represent a critical turning point in what the Nationals hope is among the last steps they need to take to close out a long and arduous rebuild and finally start thinking about winning again. They could come back to earth this weekend, or next month or even when they all reconvene next spring.

But for anyone who has endured the pain of the last three years believing there would be a light at the end of the tunnel, these last three nights were for you. It’s not just that the Nationals won a series against the Yankees, capped off by tonight’s 5-2 triumph on South Capitol Street. It’s that they did it with a roster loaded with talented young players, nearly every one of them a potential piece to the long-term puzzle.

For the most part, these weren’t stopgaps performing well against the Bronx Bombers. They were building blocks. And they delivered about as well as anyone could have hoped.

"I think we all understand that we're talented, to be honest with you," left-hander MacKenzie Gore said. "But it's one of those 'You either do it, or you don't' kind of things. This is where we're at. We don't want to be just like: 'Oh, we're going to be good in a couple of years, as a player or a team.' It's our job to be good right now."

Tonight’s victory included the first home run of Dylan Crews’ career (which began Monday). It included two more hits and three more stolen bases by James Wood, fully living up to the hype in his first two months in the majors. It included six standout innings from Gore, who in his last two starts has looked far more like the potential All-Star he was in April and May than the shaky left-hander he had been since.

The Nationals keep running into walls trying to find out if Joan Adon can become a regular member of their bullpen.

Adon was placed on the 15-day injured list this afternoon with a right shoulder biceps strain, removing the erratic reliever from the active roster again and replacing him with rookie Orlando Ribalta, who was recalled from Triple-A Rochester.

The Nats are awaiting MRI results on Adon, who had not pitched in six days but did briefly warm up during Monday night’s game against the Yankees. Teams cannot backdate IL moves more than three days, so Adon won’t be eligible to return until Sept. 10.

The 26-year-old, a starter throughout his professional career, was moved to the bullpen in Rochester earlier this season, with the Nationals thinking he might develop into an effective long man. But he’s appeared in only eight big league games across three stints with the club, and he has yet to record more than four outs in any relief appearance.

Ribalta returns to the majors only eight days after he was optioned to Triple-A, a move that came only seven days after he made his big league debut. The 6-foot-8 right-hander was scored upon in each of his two appearances for the Nats but sported a 2.64 ERA, 1.154 WHIP and 69 strikeouts in 47 2/3 innings at Rochester and Double-A Harrisburg.

It’s been a fun couple of nights at Nationals Park. Monday night saw the debut of Dylan Crews and the Yankees outplaying the home team during a tight, 5-2 win. Tuesday night saw Crews record his first hit, Andrés Chaparro record his first home run, Patrick Corbin outpitch Gerrit Cole and the Nats emerge with a tight, 4-2 win. The atmosphere in the ballpark has been outstanding, the kind of thing that used to be common around here but hasn’t been common for several years.

Now it’s the rubber game of the series, and a big start for MacKenzie Gore. It’s been a ragged summer for the young left-hander, but he hopes he turned a corner over the weekend in Atlanta, where he held the Braves to one run over six innings without issuing a walk. This is obviously a tough lineup Gore has to face tonight, but he’s unquestionably got better stuff than Corbin, who was hugely successful. It’s up to Gore to make his stuff work against Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Co.

The Nationals would love to give Gore some significant run support. It’s been a strange few days, because they’ve hit the ball hard quite a bit, and they’ve recorded four homers and four doubles, but they’re a staggering 0-for-17 with runners in scoring position. (The Yankees, by the way, are 0-for-13 in the series.) They’ll go up against left-hander Carlos Rodón, who has been hit-or-miss of late, and try to convert at least a few times in clutch situations to provide Gore some support.

The Nats did make a roster move this afternoon: Orlando Ribalta has been recalled from Triple-A Rochester, with Joan Adon placed on the 15-day injured list with a right shoulder biceps strain. So it's a swap of right-handed relievers.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs NEW YORK YANKEES
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 95 degrees, wind 8 mph out to right field

Dylan Crews’ first career hit figured to be a memorable one. And it was, a laser of a double off the left field wall in his first at-bat Tuesday night against a Cy Young Award winner.

And then for good measure, the Nationals rookie added another hit later in the game, stole his first base and scored his first run, then caught the final two outs of his team’s 4-2 victory over the Yankees.

“Overall, I thought today was awesome,” the 22-year-old outfielder said. “And we won, so it was a great day.”

Crews’ major league debut Monday turned out to be nondescript. He put together some quality at-bats but ultimately went 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout. And he didn’t have much opportunity to make an impact on the bases or in the field.

Tuesday’s game presented a very different opportunity, with Crews front and center for multiple big moments over the course of the night.

If Oct. 30, 2019, represented the pinnacle of Patrick Corbin’s career, it arguably also represented the nadir of Gerrit Cole’s career. As the former came out of the bullpen to win Game 7 of the World Series for the Nationals, the latter sat in his bullpen and helplessly watched it all unfold, ostracized for not appearing in what to that point would’ve been the biggest game of his life.

The two pitchers’ careers have gone in completely opposite directions since, with Corbin devolving into the least effective starter in baseball the last five seasons while Cole moved to New York after signing a record deal and won a Cy Young Award. There’s no comparison between them in the years since.

Except on this night, when Corbin rose to a challenge like he perhaps hasn’t since that glorious October night in Houston and Cole looked decidedly human facing a young and hungry lineup that knocked him out after five innings to give the Nationals a most satisfying 4-2 victory.

Behind back-to-back home runs from rookies Andrés Chaparro and José Tena, plus the first two hits and stolen base of Dylan Crews’ career, the Nats opened up a lead on Cole. Corbin (six scoreless innings) and four relievers then did the rest, holding down one of the most feared lineups in the sport in impressive fashion to pull off one of the team's most impressive wins of the year.

"Patrick did an awesome job today going out and giving us a chance to win," said Crews, who caught the final out of his first major league victory. "That's his job, and he executed it perfectly. It was a great crowd today. Our bullpen did an awesome job today, too. Overall, I thought today was awesome. And we won, so it was a great day."