Daylen Lile’s home run in front of plenty of family and friends helps put Washington on the verge of a series sweep.
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Playing in Cincinnati, just about 100 miles away from his hometown of Louisville, Daylen Lile demolished a home run in the 10th inning on Wednesday to help the Washington Nationals earn an 8-7 comeback win over the Cincinnati Reds.
The Nationals, who were down 5-0 after the first inning, have a chance to sweep the series on Thursday.
This series has been circled on Lile’s calendar all year, his first chance to play in front of friends and family who helped him get to the majors. He’s put on a show for the more than 100 people who made the drive to see him, going 5 for 9 with three home runs and seven RBI over the past two games.
“That was an awesome game as a team, and individually,” Lile told the Nationals broadcast. “That’s stuff you dream about.”
In the 10th inning, with the game on the line, Lile knew it was gone from the second it left his bat. So did his father, Danny Jr. Lile. As the son trotted around the bases, his father ran down the stands, celebrating.
For most of his childhood, the two practiced alone in batting cages throughout Louisville, Danny Jr. pitching to his son after a long day of work. They couldn’t always afford private hitting coaches, so Danny Jr. learned as much as he could to help Daylen.
On Wednesday, they saw it all pay off in a big way.
“That’s just somebody who’s proud of me and seeing everything pay off,” Lile told the Nationals’ television broadcast when asked about his dad’s reaction.
The heroic moment came after inefficient outings from both starters. Nationals righty Jake Irvin was on the brink of getting out of the first with only one run on the board when Spencer Steer challenged the two-out, two strike call. It was overturned, and Irvin then walked Steer and Nathaniel Lowe to load the bases. Tyler Stephenson followed, taking a sinker to left-center field for a grand slam.
By the time Irvin walked off the mound, he had thrown 34 pitches and put his team in a 5-0 hole.
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But the Nationals weren’t out of it yet. Against Reds starter Nick Lodolo, they added four runs in the top of the second off a sacrifice fly from Lile, a double from Joey Wiemer and a home run from Keibert Ruiz, his third of the year.
“I think when you go down five like that, being able to claw back four right there and make it a one run game just like that was a huge confidence boost for us,” Manager Blake Butera told reporters.
In the third, with the bases loaded, Wiemer walked to bring in another run and tie the game 5-5. It wouldn’t last long, though. CJ Abrams made an error in the bottom of the third, missing the throw to first, and the Reds scored an unearned run. It was the MLB-leading 41st error for the Nationals and the seventh for Abrams.
Irvin’s command improved slightly after the first, but his pitch count was too high for him to continue past the third. His ERA is now 5.91 after nine starts, the highest of his career at this point in the season.
With Irvin out of the game, Butera turned to Mitchell Parker for the middle innings, and Parker put together a clean fourth, fifth and sixth inning, a confidence boost after he allowed five runs in his last appearance on May 9. Richard Lovelady pitched around traffic in the seventh, and Orlando Ribalta made quick work of the Reds’ order in the eighth.
Lodolo, too, had to be pulled early, his day ending after the fourth. The Nationals scored in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game back up, with Luis García Jr. grounding out as Jacob Young scored.
The game remained that way until the 10th. With Abrams on second, Lile crushed a 1-1 slurve 105.8 mph off the bat.
“Just seeing the excitement from him, obviously his family here, that goes such a long way and is such a cool moment for him and his family to experience that,” Butera told reporters. “Then just seeing his teammates, how happy they were for him too, there’s just a lot to digest a lot to be excited about in that moment.”
The Reds challenged that lead in the bottom of the 10th, but a fan interference call turned a potential Steer home run into just a double. Cincinnati still put one run on the board with the play, then PJ Poulin walked Stephenson to get the winning runner on base. With two outs, Poulin fell behind 3-0 against Blake Dunn, but pulled out back-to-back sinkers to get Dunn to ground out to end the game.
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