Chicago Cubs at Washington Nationals

Soon after Cade Cavalli made his 25th start last Friday -- his most in any professional season -- the Nationals’ ace insisted that he still had plenty of gas left in the tank. “I’m just ready to keep going, and I’m grateful that there’s no cap on me and that I can just keep pitching,” Cavalli said. In the series finale against the Cubs on Thursday, Cavalli delivered again, completing eight innings for the first time in his career while taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning in Washington’s 7-0 win at Nationals Park. Cavalli’s latest gem was his seventh consecutive quality start -- the longest active streak in the Majors and the longest by a Nationals starter since 2019 (Max Scherzer, 14). “Coming out of the gates,” manager Blake Butera said, “I thought how efficient he was in the first three innings. I was like, ‘Man if he keeps this up, we’re going to have a decision to make later in the game. This is complete-game type of pitching.’” Cavalli was in control early against a Cubs offense that entered play averaging 7.1 runs a game over the past nine contests. The right-hander needed just 54 pitches to get through five innings, retiring the first 15 Cubs he faced in order with one strikeout in each frame. Cavalli had his full array of pitches working, with a particularly efficient breaking ball against the Majors’ second highest-scoring team. “This team doesn’t really chase and I knew that going in,” Cavalli said. “So, I had to compete and throw it in the box and see what would happen.” The Cubs first reached base in the sixth, when Cavalli walked Dansby Swanson on four pitches to lead off the inning. Cavalli fell behind 3-0 on Michael Conforto, but got him to ground into a double play before striking out Miguel Amaya on a 98.9 mph fastball to end the sixth. Having still faced the minimum through six, Cavalli’s no-hit bid continued into the seventh as he struck out Pete Crow-Armstrong for a second time, before Seiya Suzuki flied out to right. But with two strikes and two outs, Michael Busch blooped a single to shallow left to break up the no-hitter. “In the moment it stinks, but then you’ve just got to get to the next pitch,” Cavalli said. “I know that my defense gave it all they had. It fell in the right spot, you’ve just got to live with that, and I just wanted to keep the score where it was.” Cavalli received a standing ovation from the 21,463 in attendance, before retiring Alex Bregman with a fly out to center to end any potential threat.