Luis García Jr. and Daylen Lile each homered twice Friday night, and the Washington Nationals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-5 for their third consecutive win. At 46-43, Washington sits two games out of a National League wild-card spot — a sentence that would have read as a typo in April.
García is the headline, and not just for one night. His two homers and three RBIs cap a stretch in which he has gone 12-for-25 with five home runs over his last seven games, lifting his season line to .283 with 18 homers, 62 RBIs and an .874 OPS. The 26-year-old second baseman was the rebuild’s first test case — the young player Washington chose to wait on rather than replace — and this is what the payoff looks like: a middle-infielder producing like a middle-of-the-order bat.
Lile’s night was nearly as loud. The 23-year-old went 3-for-4 with two home runs, a double and four RBIs, giving him 10 homers on the year. José Tena also went deep, James Wood doubled and tripled, and Foster Griffin quietly delivered five innings of one-run ball for the win. Pittsburgh scored four in the ninth against the back of the bullpen to make the final closer than the game was.
The pattern is what matters more than any single result. Washington has now won three straight by a combined 27-8, including back-to-back routs in Boston, and the runs are coming from the players the rebuild was always about: García, Lile, Wood, Dylan Crews, CJ Abrams. None of this guarantees a postseason push — 46-43 is a foundation, not a finished argument. But the development plan and the standings are finally pointing the same direction, and that is the most encouraging thing you can say about a franchise in year four of a teardown.
The series with Pittsburgh continues Saturday in Washington.
