The Washington Nationals arrive in Florida in their best standings position in seven seasons, and the club is hoping for positive chaos in its three-game series with the Tampa Bay Rays starting Friday night in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Tuesday’s victory over the Kansas City Royals put the National League East team four games above .500 for the first time since 2019 — the season it sent the Washington area into a frenzy by winning the World Series over the Houston Astros in seven games.
All this winning has left first-year manager Blake Butera’s squad tied for the last of six NL playoff spots, though there’s more than half a season left to play.
Second baseman Nasim Nunez has fortified Washington with his speed and dazzling glovework.
A second-round pick by the Miami Marlins in 2019, Nunez went 2-for-2 with a pair of triples, three runs, one RBI and a stolen base on Tuesday against the visiting Royals.
“He’s special,” said shortstop Curtis Mead after the series-clinching 6-4 win. “He just creates chaos out there on the bases, and he’s really the guy that you want the ball hit to out on defense. It feels like every time it goes near him, he does something crazy.”
A testimony to his havoc on the basepaths is his 26-for-29 success rate in swiping bags.
“My best big-league performance, in my opinion,” the 25-year-old Nunez said. “It was pretty cool. I showed off all my tools, and then we came out with a win — and even bigger, a series win at home.”
Washington will send out Cade Cavalli (4-4, 3.98 ERA) for his 16th start of the year and first career outing against the Rays. The right-hander has won three of his past five decisions dating back to May 16.
After a terrible West Coast swing in which they went 1-5, the Rays return for a 10-game homestand owning a four-game winning streak over Washington and beating the visitors in eight of the past nine meetings since April 2023.
Manager Kevin Cash’s group held the best record in the American League and a small lead over the New York Yankees in the East Division last month.
However, the team ended its trip by being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers — all one-run setbacks.
It marked the third time in the past seven series the club was winless in a three-game set, also suffering the same fate against the Baltimore Orioles and Detroit Tigers.
Worse yet, the Rays sent out their top three starting arms — Nick Martinez, Drew Rasmussen and Shane McClanahan — against the two-time defending World Series champions, but no victory was found.
The Rays are 7-15 since May 24, sending them sliding in the standings but still good enough to keep them in the AL East runner-up spot and six games ahead of the third-place Toronto Blue Jays because of the cushion they had built.
Now a starter, Griffin Jax (1-5, 3.68) has been battling a blister issue as he pitches deeper into games.
“As I’ve been adding pitches, just throwing more of the pitches I typically threw instead of 15 … (now) 60 or 70, it’s just adding a little bit more of that friction and just causing some irritation,” the righty said.
Jax is 0-1 with a 3.86 ERA in five relief appearances against Washington.
–Field Level Media
