BALTIMORE -- Whether he earns monthly honors, Luis García Jr. will be remembered as the Nats’ own “player of the month” for June.
Blasting a pair of long balls for his third multi-homer game of the year (and home runs No. 10 and 11 of the month) in Washington’s 6-4 win over Baltimore on Sunday at Camden Yards, García became the first Nationals player to hit double-digit homers since Kyle Schwarber hit 16 in June 2012, and the seventh in Nats history (since 2005).
Sunday’s performance, which saw the 26-year-old go 3-for-5 with five RBIs to boost his season total to 55 and his monthly total to 25, also powered the Nats to a series win, a big boost for the club before it heads to Boston. It’s a far cry from the García who finished 2025 with a .701 OPS and 16 homers in 139 games -- just one home run more than his 2026 total so far, and in 61 fewer games.
A big reason García has been having such success lately has to do with his approach at the plate. As manager Blake Butera explained pregame Sunday, García is a player who “has a knack for feeling like he can hit everything, because he kind of can.” The Nats, however, have pushed García to be more selective, to take pitches where he can, to work counts and wait on a pitch he can do damage on.
It’s paying off big time, clearly. On Saturday, García hit his hardest home run of the season, a 114-mph blast, in a 3-0 count. Sunday’s pair of long balls came in an 0-1 count and a 2-2 count, respectively, further proof of García’s growth as a hitter.
García, despite his youth, is the longest-tenured player in the Nats’ system, signing with the club as a 16-year-old in July 2016. A decade later, he’s turned himself into a force to be reckoned with.