Daylen

Lile

Lile drove in a run on a base hit, stole second, and scored on a double as the Nationals scored four runs in the second inning. He then took Merrill Kelly deep for a solo homer in the fifth to extend the lead. The home run was Lile’s eighth of the season, but first since May 15, ending an 18-game home run drought. The 23-year-old outfielder is hitting .256/.308/.417 with 38 runs scored, 30 RBI, and five steals across 279 plate appearances.

Lile had his first multi-hit game since May 21. In his last 16 games entering play Tuesday, Lile was hitting just .182 and saw his average fall from .274 to .249. The 23-year-old outfielder was on base three times Tuesday with two singles and a walk. It could be the start of Lile getting back on track.

He snuck a two-run shot just over the right-center fence in Nationals Park off Shane Baz in the sixth inning. Lile now has 10 hits in his last five games, four of them have cleared the fences, and he’s even added a steal in the process. He’s hitting .319/.370/.681 in May. He may have been dropped in some shallow formats, but he’s both a good enough hitter to keep this up and a well-rounded enough player to be a reasonable starter in 12-team leagues. On the season he’s now hitting .274/.335/.463 with seven homers and three stolen bases.

The homer was a go-ahead, two-run blast off Tony Santillan in the tenth, his third in the past two games. Lile is backing up last year’s surprise breakout and has started all but one game for the Nationals this season. He’s been a big part of Washington’s offensive success as the team entered Wednesday with the sixth-highest wRC+ in MLB.

Lile’s two home runs give him five on the year. He hit a solo shot off Brady Singer in the fourth inning and a two-run shot off Luis Mey in the fifth inning. Lile hadn’t hit a home run since April 22 entering play Tuesday. He’s hitting .264 with 26 runs, 19 RBI and two stolen bases.

With the Nationals being shut down by Jacob Misiorowski and the Brewers’ bullpen in this one, Lile had one of their two total hits and their only one that went for extra bases. After a hot start to the season, Lile has cooled off considerably going just 3-for-26 over his last seven games.

After going 19 games without a homer to begin the season, Lile now has three in five games, pushing him up to .282/.333/.437 overall. It’d be nice if his elite speed made him a better basestealer — he’s 1-for-3 this year after going 8-for-14 as a rookie — but he’s thus far been useful in shallow leagues anyway.

It looks to be just a routine day of rest for the 23-year-old outfielder. Joey Wiemer will start in his place in the Nationals’ outfield and will bat sixth against Giants’ southpaw Robbie Ray on Sunday afternoon in Washington.

Lile doubled and singled twice. The 23-year-old somewhat quietly put together a strong 2025 campaign with an .845 OPS over 91 games, and while the sample is small, he’s backed it up to begin 2026 with a .409/.458/.545 slash over five games.

Lile came into today 0-for-12 with a walk and five strikeouts in five spring training games, but he did go 2-for-2 in an exhibition game against Venezuela. Everything is a super small sample size at this point in the season, but this was also Lile’s first hard-hit ball of the spring. The 23-year-old had a really nice rookie season last year, but his 2025 performance did come out of nowhere a bit after hitting .262/.347/.388 in 130 minor league games in 2024. He will be the starting left fielder to begin the season, but with James Wood, Dylan Crews, Jacob Young, and Robert Hassell III all MLB-ready as well, Lile will need to produce to hold onto his spot.