By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
After missing 15 days with a finger ailment, Cade Cavalli returned to the mound for the Rochester Red Wings on Wednesday night at Frontier Field and picked right up where he left off.
Cavalli pitched five scoreless innings, allowing three hits and three walks while striking out three, but the bullpen allowed seven runs between in the seventh and eighth innings in a 7-4 loss to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.
Such is life for the Red Wings of late. They’ve lost seven in a row and 29 of the past 41 games, falling below .500 (46-47) for the first time since an opening day loss.
Through it all, however, Cavalli has continued his progression, building a total package that will enable him to slide into the Washington Nationals rotation when the time is right.
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Over his past three starts, he has pitched a total of 15 2/3 innings, allowing just one unearned run, seven hits and three walks (all came Wednesday night) while striking out 16.
Considering his last start was back on July 12, the 24-year-old right-hander and Nats’ top prospect was more than eager to start throwing strikes.
“Whenever you miss a start, you’re dying to get back out there,” said Cavalli, who has a 4-3 record, 4.03 ERA and 1.17 WHIP. “It felt like two weeks for sure.”
His break was the result of a fluky injury; it wasn’t a blister on the finger of his pitching hand but in some ways was similar. He said the same thing happened last season when he was pitching for Double-A Harrisburg.
“It was just a little piece of skin that flipped up and you can’t really do anything about it and healed really good,” Cavalli said. “It happened right around the same time last year. Sometimes the humidity … maybe I was swiping the dirt too hard. We did the best we could to heal it and move forward.”
The ailment forced him to miss the Futures Game, which was played at Dodger Stadium on July 16. But in the big picture, his development is much more important to the Nationals.
He showed tenacity against the RailRiders, working out of a two-out, second-and-third jam in the second, the only time SWB threatened against him.
“I thought I competed well to whatever the game was calling for at the moment,” Cavalli said. “That’s what you’re trying to do as a pitcher. I wish I could have avoided the walks (three) a little bit but they happen.”
For the season he has walked 27 in 76 innings.
“I don’t think that’s a thing I have to worry about because I’ve been in the zone a lot,” he said.
One of his three walks was due to a pitch-clock violation. With about four seconds remaining on the pitch clock and a 3-2 count on Ronald Guzman in the fourth inning, Cavalli stepped off and asked for a new baseball from plate umpire Dave Martinez.
Martinez immediately called an automatic ball, which meant Guzman was awarded first base.
The problem for Cavalli: Any request for a new ball must be made before the clock clicks below 10 seconds.
“I had no clue it was before nine seconds,” Cavalli said. “That’s my fault for not knowing the rule. But it’s difficult; you don’t want to throw that pitch with a ball that feels a little slippery in your hand because it could hurt the hitter’s career.”
The feel on the ball is precisely why he asked for the exchange. If he’s nearing 100 mph with his fastball, he better know exactly where it’s going.
“It felt a little slippery and I realize I can do damage to hitters if I don’t have a great grip on the ball,” he said. “It’s coming in hard and it’s scary. If I had a pitcher throwing to me, I’d want him to have the best grip on the ball. I just felt a little silt on the ball, like rosin and sweat just mixed.”
He left with the game scoreless after reaching his pitch count, necessary due to the two-week break. The Wings scored three times in the sixth. Joey Meneses laced an RBI triple and scored on David Dahl’s two-run home run.
But the RailRiders scored five times in the top of the seventh, three off Will Harris (one-third of an inning, three hits) and the next two off Luis Avilan. The scored two more in the eighth on a towering homer by Jake Bauers off Curtis Taylor.
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