Lile's loving the dog days of summer again with torrid stretch

WASHINGTON -- Daylen Lile and Keibert Ruiz homered while Jake Irvin fought off early wildness to lead the Nationals past the Rockies, 7-1, splitting the four-game set on Thursday at Nationals Park.

Lile continued his hot August finish, similar to last year’s sensational push, when he led the Major Leagues in extra-base hits (T-1st, 16) batting average (.372) and slugging percentage (.681) after August 21.

In seven games since August 21 this season, Lile is hitting .429 (12-for-28) with two doubles, three homers, nine RBI and seven runs scored. Lile has four multi-hit games in his last seven contests.

Reminded of his hot streak at this time last season, Lile says his play and his teammates' play down the stretch is critical even if the club is 10 games below .500.

“I felt like it did [make a difference] because I felt like I left a mark for people to get excited about for next year,” Lile said. “I feel like as a team collectively we are doing that right now so hopefully we just keep that going.”

Lile’s 18th home run of the season -- his second in the series -- traveled a Statcast-projected 399 feet at 104.5 mph to lead off the fifth inning. He finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored.

“A lot of confidence right now,” Lile said. “But I can’t get too high. You know how this game is. Just stay in the middle and just keep doing what I'm doing.”

Ruiz smacked a two-run shot in the eighth over the right-field wall, his ninth of the season. Ruiz, who also doubled in the seventh, has hit safely in 12 of his last 16 games.

“Today was awesome,” said Nationals manager Blake Butera. “All the way around, I couldn't have been more proud of the effort, how hard these guys played today. Obviously, the result [was] to win 7-1, but just as a whole, we handled our business the right way and we played the game the right way.”

After spending two months on the IL with a shoulder strain, Irvin surrendered 20 earned runs in five starts. When the right-hander walked three of the first five Rockies faced Thursday, there was fear this would be another rough performance.

But Irvin ended up allowing only one run despite the season-high six walks.

“Just believing in himself, believing in his stuff, have high expectations for himself, which he does,” Butera said. “I know he's been fighting himself. When he got going and then got hurt in Atlanta, [it] kind of stopped momentum there. Just want to see him continue to pitch the way we all know he's capable of doing”.

The right-hander found a way to survive a pair of bases-loaded situations over 4 1/3 innings, striking out six on three singles, firing 94 pitches, 53 for strikes, holding the Rockies to an RBI single from Brett Sullivan in the third frame.

“He had to grind through that,” Butera said. “I don't think that was his normal type of start. Usually he's in the zone a ton. He had six walks and one hit by pitch, but was able to limit the damage and pitch out of it a lot of times, which isn't easy to do, so [I was] happy to see him dig deep and find a way to get out of those jams that he put himself into.”

The bullpen of Tom Cosgrove (1-2), Erik Tolman, Clayton Beeter and Orlando Ribalta totalled 4 2/3 scoreless innings.

Jacob Young connected for a single, double, two stolen bases, a walk and run scored, now hitting safely in 13 of the last 19 games.

The center fielder has been in this position before with the Nationals when they find themselves out of the playoff race in August. So even in a split, getting the win after a pair of losses is a good bounce back.

“I think it's huge,” Young said. “A lot of us haven't played important September baseball before and that's what the goal is here is to play October baseball. But to do that, you have to play good in September. The goal is to finish really strong here and understand what it's like to play [well] at the end of the season and when it starts getting chilly again."