Louisville native Lile continues to rake against Reds

WASHINGTON – There is something about facing the Cincinnati Reds that seems to bring out the best in Daylen Lile. The Louisville, Ky., native put on a show in front of friends and family at Great American Ball Park in May and again delivered against the Reds on Friday in the Nationals’ 5-3 series-opening win.

Lile crushed a three-run home run in the bottom of the first to snap a personal 0-for-13 funk and give the Nationals an early 3-0 lead. Lile then hit a leadoff double to right in the bottom of the fourth and scored two batters later when Harry Ford launched a two-run blast to left-center. Lile is up to 15 homers on the year, while Ford went deep for the second time since being recalled after the All-Star break. The homers from Lile and Ford give the Nationals an MLB-best 170 home runs for the season.

“Hopefully this jumpstarts Daylen a little bit and gives him some confidence,” said manager Blake Butera, “and allows him to play a little more free.”

Lile ultimately went 2-for-4 in Friday’s series opener with a double, homer, two runs scored and three runs driven in. In four games against the Reds this season, Lile is now 7-for-17 with four homers, five runs scored and 10 RBIs.

With James Wood on the 10-day IL and the Nationals having recently traded Luis García Jr. and Curtis Mead, the Majors’ highest-scoring team this season is suddenly looking for others to do heavy lifting. Lile, who burst onto the scene as a rookie last summer but has battled inconsistency this season, is among those the team could be leaning on.

“Any chance where I can capitalize for the team, you try to take advantage,” Lile said. “But I feel like there’s a lot of players on this team who have a chance to step up and I feel like we have a lot of good players who are going to do that.”

With Lile serving as the offensive catalyst, Cade Cavalli was able to overcome three solo homers to deliver a sixth consecutive quality start.

Eugenio Suárez, Matt McLain and Elly De La Cruz took Cavalli deep in the opening three innings, but the Nationals workhorse relied on his curveball, had strong command for much of the outing and benefitted from strong defense behind him.

With the Nationals up 5-3 in the fifth and the Reds threatening with two on and one out, Cavalli retired Sal Stewart on an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play. Third baseman Brady House snagged the grounder, threw to José Tena (making just his fourth start of the season at second base), who then bounced his throw to a stretched-out Abimelec Ortiz at first.

“It was massive,” Cavalli said. “That’s a big moment in the game, and for us to be able to do that was huge.”

Cavalli worked around a leadoff walk in the sixth and returned for the seventh with his pitch count at 90. Once Noelvi Marte and Ke’Bryan Hayes reached on back-to-back singles, Butera turned to reliever Yovanny Cruz with two on and none out and the potential go-ahead run at the plate.

Cruz, who joined the Nationals this week as part of the deal that sent García to the Yankees, struck out McLain and walked De La Cruz before getting Stewart to ground into a 6-3 inning-ending double play.

“The stuff is so good,” Butera said of Cruz. “He’s throwing 92, 93, 94 [mph] sliders, his fastball up to 102. We traded for him, we believe in him and we want to give him an opportunity to pitch there and we have all the belief in the world in him there.”

Cavalli ultimately threw six-plus innings, allowing three runs on seven hits with eight strikeouts and two walks.

“I thought I handled the lineup well and the guys behind me played terrific ball,” Cavalli said. “Our offense did what it normally does, the defense was incredible, Yovanny coming in, first and third nobody out, getting a punchie and then a double play. It’s so massive. It was really cool seeing him do what he does out of the ’pen, second time out for the club. All in all, a fantastic game.”

Cavalli, who missed nearly three full seasons after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2023 and turns 28 next week, has now made 25 starts and thrown 128 2/3 innings this season, eclipsing his previous career high.

Butera suggested Friday that the team won’t necessarily be limiting his workload due to any pre-determined quotas.

“We’re not huge on saying this guy can only throw 'x' amount of innings, it’s more about watching how he looks every time out there and make sure we’re not noticing any trends in the wrong direction,” Butera said. “So far, knock on wood, Cade has been unbelievable.”

Orlando Ribalta then threw a 1-2-3 eighth inning, before Clayton Beeter pitched a scoreless ninth for his 12th save.