The right-hander sparked one benches-clearing kerfuffle and finished with 13 strikeouts as the Nationals claimed an 8-1 win.
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BOSTON — What righty Cade Cavalli shouted at Willson Contreras drifted into the Boston night, fading just beyond the field’s ears and scarcely repeated by the mouths of those who heard.
What that fourth-inning strikeout, the following exchange of beliefs and subsequent skirmish produced, then, was fittingly a form of presence. A lackadaisical Washington Nationals offense that had only scored an atypical three runs through 13 innings woke from its trance. At the very least, the pace changed.
Less than 10 minutes later, a one-run Red Sox lead evaporated in the same manner as Cavalli’s words. The night never left the Nationals’ hands, cruising to an 8-1 win in the second game of the road series.
“There was a lot going on, of course, and to be able to move forward from that and settle his emotions a bit and pitch the way he did against that lineup and get us through seven innings. He took the ball really well,” Nationals Manager Blake Butera said of Cavalli. “It was really impressive.”
Even against one of MLB’s worst in Boston (37-47), this felt significant. A return to form for the offensive juggernaut after a letdown to begin the week. A leap back to a game above .500 (44-43), maintaining pace in a suddenly inspired hunt for postseason contention. A strong evening on the mound, fit with a career-high 13 strikeouts for Cavalli, after an aching afternoon of injury news (more on that below).
This meant something.
So too, then, did Cavalli’s exchange. Striking out Contreras on a 3-2 curveball, after he’d batted in three runs in the first game of the series, was a spark alone. Cavalli barked toward home as he turned to walk away, and as if to question whether the words were directed toward him, Contreras wandered toward the mound. Benches cleared, Cavalli’s cap drifted into the air, Contreras’s helmet flew in the general direction of the pitcher, and the two teams continued the meet-and-greet for roughly 10 minutes.
“It’s a competitive environment out there,” Cavalli said. “Words were said.”
The specific words, though, are what made this moment piercing.
After the game, Cavalli maintained that he solely told Contreras to “sit down” (though TV mics picked him up saying “sit down, boy”), which he said was prompted by the Red Sox first baseman nudging him in the first inning. His teammates came to his defense, saying it was the nature of competition. He didn’t mean anything by it. Nothing more.
But during a week in which Contreras said his emotions were already high, his mind drifting toward the recent devastating earthquakes in his native Venezuela, the terminology Cavalli chose prompted inquiries regarding his intention — specifically a possible racial connotation.
“I think people tell everybody to sit down at some point in their career, it’s not a big deal,” Cavalli said. “We’re competitive, everybody can lose their head. And I’m super happy that our guys kept our focus, and we were focused on winning the ballgame after that.
“It’s just part of baseball,” he added. On Tuesday night, it was hard to discern.
The final verdict of the scuffle: Contreras was done for the second time in two nights (he left for barking at the first base umpire Monday, and this wasn’t even his first altercation this year). Red Sox outfielder Nate Eaton, who leaped into the fray from the bench, similarly departed. So did Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy, who came to Contreras’s defense. And the Nationals’ Monday starter, righty Miles Mikolas, waved his cap to the opposing crowd as he made his way to the showers.
“It’s the middle of the season, you got two teams that are, fighting for spots moving up, and emotions run high,” Mikolas said. “You get fired up, and then put it behind you.”
In the baseball portion of the evening, Cavalli continued through seven dominant innings, and as he extended, the runs poured. The first came with James Wood scoring Daylen Lile after working a six-pitch at-bat for a single to right field, showing the patience Butera has preached. His response to a difficult four-hit run last week has been inspiring, and he managed another three Tuesday, good for two RBI.
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“Our bats were really good,” Butera said. “We did a really good job of making them come to us, and we did a nice job of squaring some balls.”
Which became especially evident when Red Sox starter Connelly Early’s evening came to an end after the fourth with elbow discomfort.
His departure made way for a host of five relievers, none of whom made it more than 1⅔ innings, and all of whom combined to allow seven runs in the seventh and eighth. Luis García Jr. sent a monstrous double off the Green Monster, scoring two. Catcher Keibert Ruiz added another, part of a three-RBI evening. Yet each of those may disappear from the mind. Why? After a week-long cold streak, CJ Abrams capped the onslaught with a 402-foot displacement of a changeup to center field.
Beyond the mid-evening fracas, Cavalli assembled an outing the Nationals’ staff desperately needed after Mikolas allowed six runs through the first three innings an evening earlier. He was consistently in command beyond a curveball he left too high that Boston leadoff batter Anthony Seigler politely used to reach second, scoring on an error moments later.
And with similarly crucial meaning to Washington’s thin bullpen, he was efficient, landing on the century mark while only giving up a single unearned run. Coupled with an impressive six-inning, two-run showing against the Philadelphia Phillies last week, he’s sparked a bit of inspiration in Washington’s clubhouse.
“His stuff was unbelievable,” Butera said. “Pitching here in Fenway is never easy with the big crowd, and also going against this good of a lineup. But the ability that he had to do what he did tonight was extremely impressive.”
A fitting bow to his evening: a strikeout of Jarren Duran on a better-placed version of the knuckleball that burned him with Seigler in the first.
In an evening of meanings, that, too, meant something.
Notes: After undergoing an MRI exam for elbow inflammation Monday afternoon, Nationals lefty reliever Mitchell Parker was diagnosed with a Grade 3 UCL sprain, which likely will require Tommy John surgery.
“I’ve never felt anything on the mound, so I felt some stuff, and it was what it was,” Parker said before Tuesday’s game, before forcing a lighthearted response: “Made it six years on the original parts.”
He last took the mound in Washington’s 6-4 win against the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday, putting together a 1-2-3 sixth before giving up a two-run home run in the seventh. In the span of four pitches, though, the velocity on his fastball dropped from 95.1 mph to 89.1, and he seemed distraught as he exited.
Before the injury on Sunday, he looked to be turning a corner, pushing his fastball in a way he largely hadn’t this year to the tune of a 6.58 ERA in 39⅔ innings, his worst clip in three seasons with the Nationals. Washington had primarily deployed him in middle-inning situations this year.
“You just let him know we’re going to be there every step of the way,” Butera said. “He has the support of everybody here throughout this long journey. Next thing is, if you want to give him some confidence and positivity coming through this, is you give him a long list of pitchers that are very successful in the big leagues right now that have had this surgery.”
He joins a growing list of current Nationals who’ve needed Tommy John surgery, including Cavalli, Ken Waldichuk and top prospect Travis Sykora.
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