Cavalli Only Lasts 4 Innings in Loss

Walters is back for another season as the official bar of the Nats Chat podcast. They've been with us since our very first season on air in 2021. Walters is located just across the street from the ballpark. So we standing in Cavalier workout of the stretch here's the pitch. So we're going to tap her back first base out of the ball. Cavalier can't make the play. He knocked it down with his glove and a room in the foul ground. All hands are safe. Martin scores and the twins lead three to one. He kicks and delivers and a swing in a fly ball right center field toward the gap. Young in one of the run and no one's going to get there. It's in for the base and it goes to the fence. One run is scored. It's going to score two. And the twins have brought them all around. Four runs home in the inning. It's now Minnesota six and Washington won. Walters on a little bit there when we wasn't on spot. And welcome to Nats Chat. I'm Al Galdi host of the Al Galdi podcast and joined by Washington Nationals insider Mark Sookramit of Nats Journal dot com. Nobody denies the talent of Nats starting pitcher Kate Cavali. What's missing is the consistency and we on Tuesday evening. So the lack of consistency pop up again. Six runs three earned in four innings this off back to back 10 strike out outings. We lately have seen the best of Cavali and also the worst of Cavali. Tuesday evening a Nats loss a Nats blowout loss and 11 three loss to the Minnesota twins at Nats Journal's Park in game one of a three game series. The Nats in MLB's 2026 regular season fall to 16 and 20 just four and 13 at home versus 12 and seven on the road. And the four and 13 includes the Nats being just one in five in game ones of series at home. The Nats have been especially bad at getting off the good starts in home series. But good to have you with us. You can find us on exit Nats underscore chat. You can find us on blue sky at Nats Chat podcast. You can email us Nats Chat podcast at gmail dot com. And we have a website that we invite you to check out Nats Chat podcast dot com at which you can purchase a Nats Chat podcast t-shirt. We have been discussing that at surging off and calming down. But that's now have scored three runs or less in seven of the teams last 11 games. But mark off what we had seen recently from Kate Cavali to see what we saw on Tuesday evening disappointing for sure. Disappointing I'm sure for him. But we did not see the Cavali who we had seen over his two previous outings. No, this was a huge disappointment. And yet it started off really well. He retired the first five batteries he faced in this game on a total of 11 pitches. They were swinging early. He was getting quick outs and you thought to yourself, hey, he could be back on track for another one of these kind of dominant performances. And then there's a little bit of bad luck in there. There was a hit by pitch. It was a ball that actually bounced in the dirt and then caught the hitter. There's a little bit of a weak single. Then he gives up a hard double. So you give the two runs there. But he gets through that comes back for the fourth. And there's two ground balls that had an exit velocity of 66 miles an hour. Neither of them turned into an out. Now one of them is an error on Cavali. It was kind of a tough play where he's thinking of trying to get the out of the plate. Here's the pitch. So we're going to tap her back first base out of the mound. Cavali can't make the play. He knocked it down with his glove and it rolled into foul ground. All hands are saved. And then a couple of walks. I think the biggest difference in this game from the previous ones. Four walks. He only had one, I think over his last two games total. And yes, there's some bad luck. And if things go a little differently, this might have been different. But he had opportunities to get through it. And that fourth inning was just tortures. 40 pitches. Four runs score and Blake Beterra decided to pull the plug right there. Yeah. And Cavali just two strikeouts in this game. Two a number of instances in which he had a guy down or at least with two strikes. And Cavali unable to put the guy away. So he was coming off the two consecutive 10 strikeout out. And seven two loss to the Atlanta Braves at the Nationals Park on April 23rd. Two runs. Five innings 10 strikeouts. No walks. 14 to win at the New York Mets last Wednesday night. April 29th. Two runs six innings. 10 strikeouts. But Cavali on Tuesday evening six runs. Three earned four innings. He gave up five hits, which were two doubles and three singles. Issued three walks and a hit by pitch. Recorded just two strikeouts 76 pitches. 40 H. Strikes 28 balls. And he committed a key fielding error. Like Mark said, Cavali did get back at two degree. That's true. But he also failed to get some big outs. So top of the second he allowed two runs on a two out hit by pitch of Cody Clements. A two out swinging bun single by Luke Keishel to the left side of the infield on an 0-2 pitch. And a two out first pitch, two run double by Brooks Lee to the right field corner for a two one twins lead. So, you know, the single by Keishel unfortunate. The hit by pitch unfortunate. But he gives up a two out first pitch, two run double by Brooks Lee. And then Cavali unraveled in that top of the fourth four runs. One earned on a whopping 40 pitches. Gave up a week lead off opposite field single by Austin Martin through the right side of the infield. But then came the walks a five pitch walk. A Cody Clements a 10 pitch walk of Luke Keishel. Then came the error first pitch run scoring. Fielding air on a Fielder's choice. Grounder by Brooks Lee back to Cavali for a three one twins lead. Like Mark said, tough play. But Cavali did get charged with an error. Cavali gave up an opposite field. RBI sack fly by Royce Lewis to the right field warning track for a four one twins lead. That was a rather loud out. And Cavali gave up a two out two run double by Trevor Larnick to the right center field gap on an 0-2 pitch. For a six one twins lead, that really stood out. You have Larnick down 0-2. You end up giving up a two out two run double and Cavali issued a two out eight pitch walk of Ryan Jeffers, despite having had him down in the count at 1.02. So like I said, we saw the best of Cavali, the two previous outings. In a lot of ways, we saw the worst of Cavali in this game. He is reminding me a lot of Mackenzie Gore from a standpoint of the highs or high. But the lows are low. There is this extreme pitch inefficiency. You know, Cavali now over eight games all starts is averaging 18.78 pitches per inning. And you look at him and you say, man, there's so much to like, but it's just a matter of consistency. And Cavali right now is inconsistent. Yeah, I think that's the best way to put it. And I don't think we should be shocked by this. Let's remember 10 starts last year, one prior to that point before he got hurt. And now this is what number seven on the year. So this is still a guy with fewer than 20 big league starts. We think of him as more experience than he really is because he's been around. We've been hearing about him and seen him for so long, but we haven't actually seen him pitch that much because of the injuries. So I think you have to understand there are some growing pains. You would love for these nights when he's not as sharp as he was the last two for him to still be able to find a way to get through it without the damage. It felt to me like, remember when he wasn't putting guys away, the way that he did in those previous two starts that led to all the strikeouts. As you said, two strikes on a lot of these guys couldn't finish them off couldn't put them away. But then also as that fourth inning progressed and it kept going on, you could see he was just not sharp at all. And there were really uncompetitive pitches that he's throwing up there. So you can understand why some of the walks happen. Some of the long at bats and obviously the high pitch count physically. And I think this is probably a Blake butte and Simon Matthews are seeing from the dugout. I think they're probably concerned that he had to work so hard and he was kind of losing that command, which had been so good for him the last really three starts, throwing tons of strikes that they felt like this isn't worth trying to push any further. Let's pull him after the fourth inning. So you do wonder about like the stamina issue. And when an inning starts to go south on him, the fact that he couldn't get it back and just ended already to give him a chance to continue in the game. But again, I think you do have to acknowledge he's still kind of new at this. He's still learning at the big league level. And these are the kind of starts sometimes you're going to have to experience because of that. The hope would be next time out he's back to that previous form. As much as we want him to like take off and just stay there for the rest of the year, I think it would be naive to think that he's going to do that at this point. You know, 40 pitches in that top of the fourth. There is such a thing as you pull a guy because the pitch count is so high, you're worried about the health. And he was flirting with that number and that inning. And when he issued that two out eight pitch walk of Jeffers, you know, I'm saying to myself like, I wonder if you just yank them now, just from the standpoint of, you know, what if he gets to like 50, 55 pitches? Like, you don't want that in that inning. That was dangerous. What was going on in that inning, not just from a standpoint of the runs given up, but from the pitch count that he accumulated. Yeah, I think that was going to be his last batter. Josh Belly struck him out. You had Paxton Schultz already warming in the bullpen. My guess is that would have been the last batter. If Bell reaches, they would have pulled him. I think 40 is kind of that number where once you get past that, you're like, we're not going to go any further if it all possible. You might let him finish in that bat, but you don't let him go, especially somebody with his kind of, you know, injury track record and that. So yeah, I think that's really what it was. And again, it's not just that he threw those 40 pitches, but you could see as that inning went on. He just wasn't the same guy. It was not nearly as sharp at the end of that inning as he was earlier on. So it's a step back for him. Sure. The key is, is this a one-time step back, or does this turn into anything worse? Beyond this, we'll have to see next time out. I like your comparison to Mackenzie. I think there are some similarities there. You watch them and you can say undeniably they've got great stuff and they have the ability to dominate any particular time they take the mound but what's going to determine whether or not they really reach their full potential and become a frontline big league starter is can they do it start in and start out and as we always talked about with Gore on the nights when you don't have it because you're not going to have it every time out there. Can you still find a way to get through it with minimal damage that was often Gore's problem and we see that might be Cavali's problem at this point. Cavali has a fascinating statistical profile too so eight games all starts. The ERA is at 4.15. The whip is at 1.70. We've said this before but he's lucky the ERA isn't higher given how high the whip is. The strikeout rate is quite good 10.3H strikeouts per nine innings. The pitches per inning is very high as mentioned 18.78 and the lack of innings is something. He has eight starts just 34 and 2/3 innings. He had that rate if he made 32 starts which is a lot of starts would total 139 innings. I wonder what the record is for let's say 30 starts fewest innings in a regular season. Whatever that record is he's tracking toward perhaps challenging that mark. That really is something that he's healthy which is good and he's making a starts which is good. But man he is not eating innings to any extent and that of course is a function of the pitch count. He's just throwing a ton of pitches. Right. I think it's a combination of the pitch count and the team being particularly cautious with him given his inexperience and significant injury. History I think if he's been around longer if he never had the arm issues that he had you might let him go a little further. There have even been some games where he's pitched kind of well and they pulled him maybe a little bit sooner than you would have thought in a perfect world. I would imagine that's going to continue. You would hope that as the season plays out and provided that he does stay healthy and is showing that he can withstand the rigors of the long season that they do pull back on the leash some and let him go a little further. But it's also incumbent upon him to be efficient enough to be able to give you consistently six plus innings and aside from a few starts we just have not seen that from him. So those last few really the last three starts we talked about his strike throwing was fantastic. And he lost that in this one. So I really want to see how that goes from here. He has through most of his professional career been a strike thrower now maybe that leads to some long and bats a lot of foul balls we saw in a few games but for the most part he's not somebody that just you know walks the the other team like crazy and drives up the pitch count. So I want to believe that this one isn't anomaly there but let's see how it does the next time out. I'll go all the year to tell you about window nations by four get four free sale but before that the window nation look into the future. Wise and burger fires. Ground ball in between first and second it's in the right field. Ford's getting the wave home. Pacha's throw is into second base and Ford scores on the RBI single from Andre's Chuparo. Window nation has a great offer for listers of the Natchat podcast the buy for get for free sale during which you could replace all of your homes windows and get half of them for free plus you can get your windows with no money down and no payments or interest for two years. The sale end soon so call 86690 nation or visit window nation.com now to book a consultation 86699 window nation or window nation.com to book a consultation and tell window nation that you want the deal that you heard about from Algoldy on the Natchat podcast. The two two swing its post over the leaping third baseman beboss have base hit down the left field line. That'll score Clemens while trying to pick it up in the corner he does over the third goes key Sean and it's second with a double is Lee. So the twins tack on another it's 11 to three. Lee has his second double of the night his third hit and third run batted in. Well the natural leaf pitching in this 11-3 loss to the twins at nationals park on Tuesday evening was bad. You know the relief pitching lately has been better but Tuesday evening definitely a step back three Nats relievers combined to allow five runs in five innings now. Paxton Schultz was good he tossed two scoreless and hitless innings but Andre Grineo allowed four runs in two innings in the top of the eighth gave up a first pitch three run homer by Byron Buckston to left field for a 10-3 twins lead a Grineo now in this regular season eight games nine into third innings 10 earn runs ERA 964 whip 225 and sure enough the nets late night on Tuesday night announced having option Grineo to triple a rodchester and Orlando Revolta allowed one run in one inning top of the ninth you let her run on two walks and a double all with one out also regarding Nats relief pitching the Nats on Tuesday night this was during the game in fact announced officially the signing of free agent reliever Max Crannick one year major league contract club option for the 2027 season but the Nats in announcing the signing also announced having put him on the 15 day entered list to do the recovery from right elbow surgery. Crannick underwent Tommy John surgery on his right elbow June 2022 and underwent right flexor tendon surgery in July 2025 and off the comments of Nats manager Blake butar during his post game press conference sounds like we will not be seeing Max Crannick at the major league level for a while. Yeah fair enough big of things and excited to add an arm to the order. Yeah butar said he hasn't really know the timeline but he feels like it's probably at least a month away at this point so I think that's why you saw a little bit of an unconventional move here they sign him to a major league contract and gave him a team option for next year and that's the kind of thing you do when you sign an injured player particularly a pitcher who you're not sure how much you're going to get out of him this year but you do believe that once healthy he could be somebody of value to you so if he does come back at some point this year even if he doesn't but they have reason to believe that he's on the right track and that he could be somewhat productive for them in the future you could see them picking up that option I don't know financial terms yet I haven't been able to to find that out I can't imagine it's that much that they're giving him but he did have success for the meds last year before suffering the injury there was fear at the time that he was going to need his second Tommy John surgery turns out he just had the flexor tendon so that's little sigh of relief there but you're talking what we're up to about 10 months since he had that surgery so you can tell this wasn't nothing and he's still working his way back from that so it's a little bit of a role of the dice but clearly they felt like they had seen enough there to believe that whether it's later this year or even next year this is somebody who could help them out and obviously when it comes to this season once he's healthy he would be pitching in the minors on a rehab assignment presumably a fairly lengthy rehab assignment I would think anyway before he would be brought up to the majors to pitch right yeah you would think so you miss that much time you're allowed a full month on rehab he may and I apologize for not knowing this he may also have options he hasn't been in the big leagues that much so even once healthy he may be somebody they can option to triple A and this isn't a short term fixed kind of move this is somebody they think could help them you know further down the road whether it's this year or next so even though Grinillo now goes back to triple A we're still waiting to find out on Wednesday with the corresponding move is but it's not has nothing to do with the chronic signing they'll bring up somebody else as this kind of constant revolving door Mary go around with their bullpen goes on and you just hope they can find some guys who fit in and give them what they need on a particular given day yeah round and round the bullpen Mary go round goes and by the way the corresponding roster move to the that signing max chronic was them on Tuesday night announcing having designated reliever Jackson Rutledge for assignment and you know that's notable but it's also not surprising and that that is not surprising is notable this has done a clear spot on the 40 man roster but of course Jackson Rutledge a guy who the Nats took with a first round pick number 17 overall pick in the 2019 and will be first year player draft the Nats took him out of San Jacinto College a public community college in Texas we've talked about Rutledge plenty of times just has not worked out failed as a starter now in a lot of ways failing as a reliever he's not necessarily done with the Nats organization be interesting to see you know what comes of him being DFA but the fact that he has been DFA says a lot about where he's at yeah probably had to figure this was coming at some point you know the previous administration had exhausted all their opportunities with him as a starter they gave him one last shot as a reliever he was actually on the big league roster almost the entire season last year even though the performance didn't really suggest that he should have remained in the big leagues he comes to spring training this year I think they were actually impressed with some of what they saw from him he came up briefly I think it was only one game it did not go well they sent him back down I think it's obvious here that this is someone who was drafted and developed by the previous administration the new administration comes in you take a look at him you see if he might fit in and they pretty clearly decided he does not and just added to the list of first round picks that not only just didn't really work out but really didn't work out And I'm not saying that he was ever supposed to be a top front line Prospect that you said he was 17th overall You know, I don't think they said this is a future ace But it really never happened for him there were some injuries early on but really it was performance It wasn't about anything else and he got his opportunities and he just did not do enough with it to suggest that there was Hope in the long run now maybe whether it's still with the Nats a triple A or if he ends up going somewhere else Maybe somebody else can tap into whatever he has but it's unfortunate and you know add them to the list There's a lot of them as we've talked about over the what the second half of the 2010s that just did not pan out at all for this organization I mean it is a murderers row of whiffs of first round picks 2014 starting pitcher Eric Fettie 2016 short stops last second basement quarter key boom There also was starting pitcher dain-dunning although at least you're able to trade him 2017 starting pitcher Seth Romero 2018 starting pitcher mason denna burr of 2019 starting pitcher Jackson Rutledge 2020 starting pitcher Kate Cavali will see what happens with Cavali, but I mean man You know Fettie key boom Romero denna burr of Rutledge I mean whiff after whiff after whiff that is why then that's our where they are as we have talked about plenty of times Pitch swung on driven near the left field that's all the left fielders and and hits the top of the fence and stays in play Tatoa score one into second We'll see if the nationals ask for this to be reviewed because I think it hit the top of the fence and Then tear up the railing or the flower bed behind it. We'll see Here comes Blake return out of the dugout now to talk to all play an umpire mark Wektor Either way Tena has scored and for the moment. It's now the twin seven and the nation's three So the Nats offense as I mentioned three runs are less now in seven of the teams last 11 games Then that's on Tuesday evening just three runs just six hits though four were extra base hits Then that's had four doubles and two singles work three walks But went just two for 11 with runners in scoring position and struck out 10 times of an at six hits came from the team's numbers One through three batters and number eight batter talking about James Wood Dalyle Curtis mead and Jose Tena James would an Extra base hit in this game very good to see that wood is an at starting right field or a number one batter one for four RBI double wood in the Nats one run seventh went out opposite field RBI double off the top of the left field wall to cut the Nats Devisa to seven three of the play was reviewed via a crew chief review was maintained as a double as opposed to being Rule to Homer, but the double had a game best exit velocity of 119 miles per hour per stat cast and wood really is cooled off lately You know, we haven't talked too much about it Just because you know, what's gonna be up and down like you can't expect supreme excellence every game of every season But to see that opposite field power there was good that RBI double was just his second Extra base hit over his last 10 games. He actually had cooled off quite a bit over these last 10 games It's now a 10 game Homerless streak for him He hit his ninth Homer in game 87 and that was one every three games. That's a 54 Homer pace over a whole season and He hasn't hit one again since then now that one in this game is seven hitting I mean it was inches away from clearing the fence He also hit a ball really well to deep left field in his second at bat So if nothing else from this game he at least showed that sign of Really good hard contact to the opposite field like we know from him. Hopefully that will carry over he though You know for the better part of a week plus has kind of fallen back into where he was early in the season before he got red hot again As you said, this is a guy who we know is gonna be streaky You hope that the bad streaks are minimized the good streaks are sustainable But it's kind of a nature I think of the kind of Hitter that he is the the size that he has in the swing that he takes that it is probably gonna be subject to a good amount of slumps and hot streaks Hopefully those two drives in this game were the sign that he's figured something out and it's gonna be back on track again Such an interesting slash line for James Wood his batting average is just 232 But his on base percentage is 380 his slugging percentage is 507 You know people talk about a 300 400 500 slash line what about a 200 400 500 slash line James Wood is capable of Providing that no doubt, but nice to see him I have the double in this game Daven Lyle is interesting statistically So he isn't at starting left fielder and number two batter one for three with a double and a walk his OPS is just 62 but did you know Lyle is tied with shortstop CJ Abrams for the team lead and hits at 35 Lyle's OPS is in the 600s But Lyle actually has 35 hits that's kind of odd Yeah, I think he hasn't hit for the power that we saw from him last year. He hasn't have a triple yet, right? After all the the triples last season as amazing as that was he's still looking for his first one this year So he has not hit for the power, but he is getting hits I think there's less concern with him because he does still hit the ball hard as you said he is recording hits I think the idea is gonna be all right remember last year it took him a little while to get going From that power standpoint once he did he just took off and it was remarkable So I'm not as concerned about him Yes, you'd like to see that show up here at some point But he's not just going up there and Swinging wildly and whiffing and everything. I think he's just not hitting the ball You know quite to the same with the same authority that we saw for the second half of last year Give it a little more time and hopefully that starts to come together But I mean boy you look at their lineup right now. We've been talking about it's like wood and Abrams After that you know Curtis Meade is in the upper 700s He's not an everyday player Lyle as you said 692 Jose 10a 768 And it's a lot of 500s and 600s like there's really very little depth to this lineup ends above all else There is no right-handed production at all and that's why you see guys Like Curtis Meade and Jacob Young hitting in prominent spots in the lineup third and fifth They're trying to break up the lefties because they don't want the opponents just to match up with them late in games They desperately need somebody from the right side of the plate to start producing for them because they're getting very little from those guys There's no doubt about it You know Meade in this game another good game for him He is an at-stoughting first base spin number three batter two for four double RBI single You mentioned his OPS 785. Jose 10a. He is an at-stoughting DH and number eight batter two for three double single walk He's got an OPS of 768, but there's no doubt I mean, you know K-Bet Ruiz, alright? So he in this game as an at-stoughting catcher and number nine batter 0 for four two strike outs grounded into a double play to end the game his OPS is down to 506 Not seem noone yes for all of the good things that we talk about with him He is an at-stoughting second baseman and number seven batter 0 for three with a walk his OPS 547 Jacob Young who for a while was hitting he is an at-stoughting center fielder and number five batter 0 for four his OPS 581 a lot of regulars have OPS is in the 500 600s is bad 500s is really bad, you know I didn't mention we see a junior he's out with this right wrist element his OPS is 595 Then that's other regular catcher drew millis his OPS is 405 which is like microscopic I really do wonder I mean at what point do you bring up Riley Adams with how poorly Millis has played so far not that Adam sets the world on fire But geez in OPS a 405 I mean, you know that is that is bad You know it's frightening to think Jameswood C.J. Abrams if gone for bid one of them gets injured this offense is in a lot of trouble because there is a real lack of depth with this attack Uh, yeah, I don't even want to think about what happened to find there those guys was I mean the fact that Garcia And he's gonna be fine within a couple of days But the fact that they're missing him right now and that actually feels like a significant loss Tells you where things are right now that a guy with a sub 600 OPS actually feels like that Significant of a loss. I know we talk about the catchers a lot. I want to talk about k-burg or we's here for a little bit There were four bad at bats from him in this game two strikeouts two groundouts and I know the games already basically over at this point But his last step at the last step out of the game they're trailing a bunch in the night. I get it Tana draws a walk one out in the ninth Ruiz hits in a double play on the very first pitch And that's such a telling sign of who he is and I think the previous a bat strikes out on three pitches the last of which Bounced in front of the plate. He is lost up there. This is not ramifications of the concussions from last year. He is healthy by all accounts This is who he has been both before the injury and now after it And I think we've said this if Harry Ford or I guess even Riley Adams But especially if Harry Ford was doing anything of consequence a triple A I think we would have seen him by now, but he's not And you don't rush a prospect who you actually believe in before they're truly ready for it. Because of the lack of production from the guys in the big leagues. And that's hard to accept, I know, but that's going to be the case. Until Harry Ford shows something that says he's ready for this, they are not going to make that move. But in the meantime, it's really, really rough watching what they're getting. You know, Millis, I understand it's bad, but he was never supposed to be that guy to begin with. Capret Rerees at this point in his career hasn't come anywhere close to being what he's supposed to be from an offensive standpoint. And whatever defensive progress he's made, I don't think you can justify and say that's good enough to make up for the complete lack of offense they've seen from him. Riley Adams has an OPS for Triple A Rochester in the low 700s. He's not setting the world on fire, but why isn't he up and either Millis or Ruiz is down or benched? I don't get this. Why do we have to deal with Ruiz and Millis as the catching tandem? I think it's probably a combination of Adams no longer being on the 40 man roster. So you'd have to clear a spot with somebody else and not to say there isn't somebody they could move. But if you believed that he was a long term solution, maybe, but are you going to remove somebody else from the 40 man just to clear a spot for him for what's probably going to be a short term thing that's not a true fix. And I'm guessing he is someone that the new administration has looked at and acknowledges he's not part of the long term plan here. The fact that they removed him from the 40 man roster over the winter tells you all you need to know about that. So I get it. It maybe it would be better than what we've seen. Let's be clear. Riley Adams, when given the chance to play in the big leagues, has not taken the ball and run with it himself. So there's that. My guess is if he was already on the 40 man, you make that move. But are you willing to drop somebody else just for the sake of bringing him up when you know deep down that's not really an answer to anything in the long term? You can always email us. That's chat podcast at gmail.com. We got this email from eight in price. Does it bother you as much as it bothers me that Brady House is basically a platoon player at this point? I know he's not going great, but he's not awful at the plate. He's supposed to be one of the core young pieces to this roster, making him sit so many games seems irresponsible from the front office or butera or whoever is making the decision. So Brady House did not start in this game. He is forth on the nats and played appearances, but no, he's not necessarily a definite player, game in game out. He's at 128 played appearances for comparison. Say, James Wood is at 171, David Lyle is at 155. What do you make of how the team is using Brady House right now? I think it's an acknowledgement that he has not really that first like two weeks and I wrote about him, how good the plate discipline was and he looked like a different kind of hitter. He just hasn't been the same guy since then. So I think it starts with that. I think you look at his numbers against right handers. So 163 batting average, 221 on base, 288 slugging for a 508 OPS 29 strikeouts and only six walks. So that's why you see him often sitting against righties. And let's also point out that defensively has looked kind of shaky here in recent weeks. So I think that's an acknowledgement that he really has not looked all that great. Now, I understand you can look at this and say he's supposed to be part of the long term plan. Shouldn't you be willing to live with some growing pains and just put him out there, sink or swim and see what he can do as opposed to somebody like Jorbit Bebos who probably is not part of the long term plan. So I get that, but I think you also have to acknowledge that is it doing anyone any good to put someone out there if you really don't believe that he's going to have any success. Does that make it even less likely that he's going to figure it out? So I think they're working with him behind the scenes on a lot of stuff, both offensively and defensively. And so they'd rather do that and use those days off to work on that than throw him to the wolves hope for the best. And when it doesn't go well, maybe that's only making things worse and making it less likely that he's going to figure it out. Yes, in the long run, you want to see more Brady House, but he's also got to start showing some signs that he's worthy of it. I don't think we're there yet. I don't think there's really an alternative. But if they were to send somebody down among their young position players, I could see him being at least under consideration at this point. That's where we're at with him right now. Oh boy. That would be really tough to take. Dylan Cruz, Robert Hassel III and Brady House all toiling for Triple A Rochester more than a month into the season. That would be tough to take. Game two against the twins at Nashville's Park Wednesday evening at 6.45. I'm going to be very careful with how I say when I'm about to say the Nats have listed Miles Michaelis as their probable starting picture for the game. So multiple qualifiers in what I just said, the Nats have listed Miles Michaelis as their probable starting picture for the game. And Mark, I guess we'll just see if in fact an opener PJ Poolein is used in this game. Well, let's point out the obvious here. PJ Poolein did not pitch on Monday because it was an off day for the team. And he did not pitch on Tuesday because they didn't need him in the blowout loss. So if they want to go that way, there would certainly be the opportunity to do that and have him open again for Michaelis. I will say Michaelis has been better of late, not great, but he has been better. He feels better about himself. That doesn't mean that he's all of a sudden going to figure it all out and become a five to six inning effective starting picture. But the reduced workload has kind of been good for him. And maybe if they feel like the matchups are right, they're actually willing to let him take the mound for the first inning. But if not, PJ Poolein is fresh and available in case they want to go the opener route again on Wednesday. All Nationals Radio highlights on Nats Chat are courtesy of 1067, the fan for Mark Sockerman, I'm Al Galdi. We thank you for listening. And we'll talk to you next time on the Nats Chat Podcast. Pay off, Pips, three, two, swing and a man. He struck him out with a fastball and that retires the side. We'll see if that is how the day will end for Jackson Rutledge over five innings. He strikes out a Cooña to strike out to the inning.