WASHINGTON -- James Wood didn’t wait long to give Braves pitching prospect JR Ritchie his "welcome to the big leagues" moment. As Ritchie offered a 93.5 mph fastball for his first career MLB pitch, Wood launched it over the right-field fence for a leadoff homer.
The blast was Wood’s second leadoff home run of the season, and it gave him an NL-leading 10 home runs, as well as a homer in three consecutive games for the second time this year.
Ritchie settled from there, though, and the Nats ultimately fell to the Braves 7-2 in Thursday’s series finale at Nationals Park.
The defeat spoiled what was arguably the best start of the season from Nationals righty Cade Cavalli. Facing the Majors’ highest scoring team in the NL East-leading Braves, Cavalli leaned on his fastball and curveball and limited Atlanta to two runs in five innings, with a career-high 10 strikeouts and no walks.
“It was another step in the right direction,” said Cavalli, who had completed five innings just once in his prior five starts this season.
In a Nationals season that has included plenty of offensive heroics, but no shortage of pitching deficiencies, the desire for Cavalli to emerge as the undisputed anchor of the rotation has never wavered.
After being named the team’s Opening Day starter in March and rolling through Spring Training without allowing an earned run across 14 Grapefruit League innings, Cavalli proved inconsistent to begin the regular season. Control issues and high pitch counts led to brief outings, and both Cavalli and the team knew there was another gear that hadn’t been reached.
Against the Braves, that level was met.
“He looked like the Cade Cavalli we all expect to see,” manager Blake Butera said of the Nationals’ 2020 first-round Draft pick.
Cavalli was economical with his pitches early, needing just 36 through three scoreless innings. The Braves got to him in the fourth with two runs on four hits. From there, Cavalli retired five of the final six Braves he faced, all via strikeout.
“I hope he takes this and runs with it,” Butera said. “This outing was the best one by far. … He was attacking guys. He just looked different out there. He was ready to go from the jump and went right at people and attacked them. With the stuff that he has, when he’s in the zone as frequently as he was today, the results are going to be really good.”
Cavalli became the first National to reach double-digit strikeouts this season, and the first to record at least 10 strikeouts with no walks since MacKenzie Gore had 13 strikeouts and no walks on Opening Day 2025 against the Phillies.
“I feel like this is who I am,” Cavalli said, “a strike thrower that’s just going to go attack hitters and trust my defense and trust my catcher. I just want to put us in a chance to win a ball game.”
Cavalli did just that, exiting the game with the score tied 2-2. While lefty Richard Lovelady held Atlanta scoreless in the sixth, the game eventually turned in the seventh against Nats relievers Cionel Pérez and Gus Varland.
Pérez faced four batters but recorded just one out. Varland then came in to face Ozzie Albies with the bases loaded. Before even tossing his first pitch, Varland was assessed a pitch-clock violation for taking too long to complete his warmups.
His eventual first offering was a wild pitch that scored the go-ahead run. His second pitch was lined to right for a two-run single. Two pitches later, Albies scored on a Michael Harris II double to center.
Add it up and in a span of four pitches, the Braves scored four runs via three outcomes -- a wild pitch, a two-run single and an RBI double.
The deficit proved too much for the Nationals, who struggled to get much going against Ritchie, the Braves top pitching prospect who tossed seven innings of two-run ball in his big league debut.
CJ Abrams hit a solo homer in the fourth -- his seventh long ball of the season -- and Daylen Lile stayed hot with two hits and a walk, but the Nationals could not generate any sustained rallies and had little traffic on the basepaths.
“Ritchie is a really good arm,” Butera said. “That was impressive to watch, especially after that first pitch of the game. … Credit to him. He’s going to be a good pitcher in this game for a while.”
Wood went 1-for-4 with the leadoff homer. It was his NL-leading 10th home run of the season and gives him a home run in three consecutive games for the second time this season.