Nationals’ Cade Cavalli dominates Red Sox in fiery win that saw benches clear

BOSTON — After Nationals right-hander Cade Cavalli struck out Caleb Durbin in the fifth inning, he gave a little shoulder shimmy, a sign of the groove he was in.

​That level of celebration and swagger is not something Cavalli normally shows. But in Tuesday’s 8-1 win, the Nationals needed his bravado.

​With the Nationals trailing by a run in the fourth inning, Cavalli got Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras to strike out looking. As Contreras started walking back toward the dugout, he appeared to take umbrage with something Cavalli said to him after the punch-out, and it didn’t take much to set off Contreras.

The tension between the two had been brewing since the first inning. When Cavalli induced an inning-ending flyout, Contreras — who was rounding third — walked past Cavalli after the out was recorded and brushed him with his shoulder. Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy told reporters that Contreras immediately apologized, but Cavalli denied that assertion.

“I never got an apology from anybody,” he said.

So after the strikeout, Cavalli said that he told Contreras to “sit down.” Audio from the game broadcast appeared to pick up that he told Contreras, “Sit down, boy,” which Tracy said he heard Cavalli shout. Cavalli reiterated that he just said “sit down.”

​Contreras walked toward Cavalli and asked the right-hander, “Are you talking to me?” He appeared confused why Cavalli was trash-talking him. As the two converged, Contreras exploded, breaking free from multiple teammates who tried to contain him.

During the brawl, Contreras tried to throw his helmet at Cavalli and instead hit first baseman Andrés Chaparro, and right-hander Miles Mikolas got into a tussle with a Boston player.

“I didn’t think he would wait until everybody runs out there to run at me,” Cavalli said. “I don’t understand that. Him throwing the helmet, I don’t think is great, but we’re competitive, everybody can lose their head.

“I’m super happy that our guys kept our focus, and we were focused on winning a ball game after that. It’s just part of baseball.”

As a result of the fracas, Mikolas, Tracy, Red Sox outfielder Nate Eaton and Contreras were all ejected.

Contreras, who is Venezuelan, demurred when asked if he felt there was a racial component to Cavalli’s response. The term “boy” has a racist history in the U.S.

“To be honest, I don’t know,” Contreras said, later adding he plans to “let MLB handle that.”

Cavalli set a career high with 13 strikeouts and at one point retired 19 batters in a row in Tuesday’s win. He became the first Nationals pitcher to throw seven innings and record double-digit strikeouts with one hit or fewer since Max Scherzer in 2018.

In the at-bat immediately following the brawl, Cavalli said that he was amped-up to face outfielder Jarren Duran, but after that it was “just like pitching again.”

Mikolas said that he hopes the kerfuffle didn’t take away from how good Cavalli was Tuesday.

“He had an incredible game, you know, that’s as good as he’s probably ever looked,” he said. “Thirteen strikeouts getting deep into that game, and I think that’s the real story.”

The Nationals tied the game in the fifth after James Wood’s two-out RBI single with runners on first and second. They took the lead in the seventh on Keibert Ruiz’s RBI single that Red Sox first baseman Andruw Monasterio couldn’t corral as the ball rolled into foul territory.

First baseman Luis Garcia Jr.’s two-run double off the Green Monster extended the Nationals’ lead to three. Washington took complete control after scoring four runs in the eighth.

​But Tuesday was Cavalli’s night.

He resembled what a No. 1 starter looks like in every way imaginable. On the mound, he was unhittable, pumping high-velocity fastballs at overmatched Red Sox hitters and mixing speeds to keep them off-balance.

“He’s a bulldog out there,” Nationals manager Blake Butera said. “He competes. I thought he said he had some of the best stuff I had seen.”

​No statistic can measure heart and tenacity. Cavalli was the best he’s been all season, but his real impact was in his defiance. He was unyielding in welcoming the confrontation.

​After that brawl, Cavalli became enemy No. 1 at Fenway Park. When he took the mound for the fifth inning, Boston fans showered him with boos. No team wants to get involved in a benches-clearing brawl, but there’s value in a young team standing up for each other and showing they’re not pushovers.

“Thankful that my teammates [had] my back, and we were able to move on from it and go focus on the game, so it’s really not a big deal,” Cavalli said.

Cavalli was tough to face, but the way he set the tone after tempers flared in the fourth is what will stick with the Nationals past Tuesday night.

“There was a lot going on, of course, and to move forward from that and settle his emotions a bit and pitch the way he did against that lineup, and get us through seven innings,” Butera said, “it was really impressive what he was able to do with all the emotions flying high.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.