Washington Nationals at Texas Rangers

Cade Cavalli is on a roll. Six days after his most dominant performance of the season, the Nationals’ ace picked up where he left off, striking out 11 in six scoreless innings as the Nats cruised past the Rangers 6-0 at Globe Life Field on Wednesday. The right-hander pushed his scoreless-innings streak to 17. Consistency has been key for Cavalli, who notched his eighth consecutive quality start. “It’s just a testament to the process ... coming in and being the exact same, not riding the highs, not riding the lows,” Cavalli said. “Being consistent in who you are and your routine, that adds to the consistency on the field.” Indeed, there haven’t been many lows lately for Cavalli. His previous time out, Cavalli held the Cubs to only one hit and no runs in eight innings at Nationals Park. With his gem Wednesday, Cavalli added to an impressive recent body of work. He has a 2.12 ERA (14 earned runs in 59 1/3 innings pitched) over his past 10 starts. After flirting with a no-hitter against the Cubs, Cavalli’s first seven outs Wednesday were all via strikeouts; he had amassed eight K’s by the end of the third inning and 10 by the end of the fourth. Cavalli is one of only eight MLB pitchers this season with 10 or more strikeouts through four innings. “It was unbelievable the way he started that game,” Nationals manager Blake Butera said. Since the club moved to Washington in 2005, only two other Nationals pitchers had struck out 10 or more in four innings or fewer. Max Scherzer did it three times and Tanner Roark did it once. Cavalli needed just 60 pitches to get through the first four frames.