Nationals' Daylen Lile eager to continue power surge vs. O's

Daylen Lile looks to continue his hot streak when the Washington Nationals host the Baltimore Orioles in the middle game of the Beltway Series on Saturday.

Lile belted his fourth homer in four games and added a double and a single in Washington's 3-2 win over Baltimore on Friday night.

He is batting .378 (14-for-37) with four doubles, four homers, 10 RBIs and eight runs over his last 10 games. His batting average for the season is up to .274.

"Daylen's such a good hitter and when he sees some balls finding grass there's some confidence gained," manager Blake Butera said. "Yeah, he's on a roll right now."

Cade Cavalli (1-2, 4.02 ERA) starts for the Nationals Saturday while fellow right-hander Chris Bassitt (3-2, 5.21) goes for the Orioles.

Cavalli allowed two runs on four hits over 5 2/3 innings in his last start, a no-decision against the Miami Marlins. He has struck out a total of six batters over his past two starts after fanning 10 in each of his previous two outings. He has yet to face the Orioles in his career.

Bassitt is coming off a strong effort in a win against the Athletics. He entered in the second inning following an opener and gave up one run on four hits in six innings. He struck out six and walked one.

"We gave him a heads-up that we were thinking about it, and he was all for it," manager Craig Albernaz said of using the opener. "So, that willingness from a veteran, especially an established guy like ‘Bass', was awesome and you never know, because now you're messing with a starting pitcher's routine and stuff."

Over his past three starts - two of them wins - Bassitt has lowered his ERA from 6.75 to 5.21.

Bassitt is 3-0 in three starts against the Nationals and has yet to allow a run in 21 innings.

The Nationals took a 3-0 lead into the ninth inning on Friday, but the Orioles made it interesting, scoring runs on a sacrifice fly by Jeremiah Jackson and Gunnar Henderson's two-out RBI single. Then, after walking Taylor Ward to load the bases, Richard Lovelady struck out Adley Rutschman to end it and pick up his second save.

"Just trying to get in the zone," Lovelady said. "Trying to attack. Get ahead, stay ahead. Put them on their toes. I'm going to be the best I can be when I'm ahead."

Henderson had two hits for Baltimore. It was his third multi-hit effort in his last six games.

"Early on we had a lot of really good swings and obviously the hits didn't show it, but I loved our at-bats today," Henderson said. "Obviously, we got it going there in the ninth but all around I felt like with those at-bats, if we can do that day in and day out, we're going to score a lot of runs."

Before the game, the Orioles announced that infielder Jordan Westburg underwent Tommy John surgery Wednesday to repair a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. He will miss the remainder of the season.

--Field Level Media