After launching two home runs during the Washington Nationals’ five-homer outburst Friday, Daylen Lile is sticking to his approach against the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates entering a Saturday matinee.

Luis Garcia Jr. also hit two home runs and Jose Tena added a two-run shot in the Nationals’ 9-5 series-opening win on Friday.

“I’m trusting and believing in the process,” Lile said. “I’m not trying not to be someone that I’m not. I am trying to realize who I am as a hitter and player and trying to execute for myself and the team.”

Garcia produced 11 home runs and 27 RBIs in June. In two July games, he has two homers and five RBIs. He leads the Nationals in batting average (.283), RBIs (62), slugging (.559) and is tied for second on the team in homers (18).

As Washington moved to three games over .500, Lile said the club is only beginning to tap into its potential.

“(Luis) has put in the work,” Lile said. “It’s really paying off. It’s nice to see him capitalize for the team. It’s only the beginning, not just for him but for all of us.”

The Pirates are set to hand the ball to Braxton Ashcraft (8-3, 3.33 ERA) to try to slow down the Nationals’ offense, which has scored 27 runs in Washington’s three-game winning streak.

The 26-year-old right-hander is coming off a solid June in which he went 3-1 and pitched at least five innings in all five of his starts. He earned an 11-7 road win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday, allowing five runs on five hits with one walk and eight strikeouts in six innings.

Ashcraft made his only career start against the Nationals on April 16, receiving a no-decision after allowing five runs (two earned) on five hits with two walks and seven strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.

Pittsburgh manager Don Kelly said his club’s success relies on starters going deep into the game.

“The starting rotation is the foundation,” Kelly said. “And we need them big time.”

Pittsburgh scored four runs in the ninth on Friday thanks to RBI doubles from Brandon Lowe, Bryan Reynolds, Esmerlyn Valdez and Nick Gonzales, but the Pirates still took their third loss in four games.

With only 20 games under his belt, Valdez has looked the part of a major-leaguer. He went 3-for-5 with a run and RBI on Friday, and he is 19-for-38 (.500) with four homers and 11 RBIs in his past 11 games.

“You see young guys get down on themselves and get discouraged early,” Kelly said, “but he has not. He stays in the fight, continues to battle and goes the other way with base hits and good at-bats.”

The Nationals are slated to counter with Zack Littell (7-6, 5.29 ERA). In his latest outing, Littell picked up a 6-4 win on Sunday against the Baltimore Orioles. He gave up two runs on three hits with two walks and three strikeouts over five innings.

In five career appearances (one start) against the Pirates, Littell is 0-0 with a 7.27 ERA in 8 2/3 innings.

Littell will take outs however they come.

“I’d love to be different and have a crazy amount of swing and miss,” he said. “I wish I had a cool changeup that would be flashy and fun. There’s not a lot of guys in the game that are kind of like me now. I go out there and if I get 21 ground-ball outs and get through seven innings, I’ll be just as happy if I get 10 (strikeouts).”

–Field Level Media

The piggyback is back.

And this time, with two different Seattle Mariners pitchers.

Logan Gilbert is scheduled to start Saturday afternoon against the visiting Toronto Blue Jays, throwing approximately 65 to 75 pitches, before turning things over to fellow right-hander Emerson Hancock.

They will be opposed by veteran right-hander Shane Bieber, who will be making his third start of the season after being sidelined for the first three months due to right elbow inflammation. Bieber (0-0, 6.00 ERA) is 2-2 with a 2.30 ERA in seven career starts against Seattle.

So far this season, the Mariners’ Bryce Miller and Luis Castillo have participated in four piggyback starts, with the team going 2-2 in those contests.

Gilbert (6-5, 3.42 ERA) and Hancock (5-4, 3.47) were scheduled to pitch as a duo last weekend in Cleveland, but instead the team went back to a six-man rotation.

“It was a chance to give a couple guys an extra day here or there,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said of altering the plan last week. “The way we had it set up, it just provided a little flexibility there, so we were able to do that. But we will go back to it in this series against Toronto.”

The Mariners’ issue is they have six quality starters for five spots in the rotation.

Hancock pitched so well while Miller missed the first six weeks of the season that he wasn’t getting displaced. The Mariners’ least effective starter has been the veteran Castillo, who is also the highest-paid member of the staff.

The team has alternated between a six-man rotation and the piggyback system in recent weeks. After a meeting with the starters, the coaching staff and members of the front office, it was agreed they would expand the piggyback system to include all of the starters at some point through the All-Star break.

In theory, that would have Bryan Woo and George Kirby piggybacking next week against Miami.

“These guys have all wanted to shoulder the load,” Wilson said. “As we go forward, we’ll make our adjustments.”

The Blue Jays won the series opener 2-0 on Friday as Dylan Cease and two relievers combined on a four-hitter. Cease allowed three hits over seven innings, with just one walk and nine strikeouts.

“I thought it was just a really good outing,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said of Cease. “I thought his pace was a lot better … really the whole time without shaking (off) and being on the same page (as catcher Alejandro Kirk).”

The Blue Jays scored both of their runs in the third inning, on an RBI double to center field by Andres Gimenez and an RBI single to right field by Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Guerrero is hitting just .161 (5-for-31) over the past eight games, though he reported that he is feeling better at the plate.

“But the most important thing is trying to keep doing things to help this team win some games,” Guerrero said through an interpreter.

After averaging 31.8 homers over the past five seasons, Guerrero has just four long balls more than halfway into the current campaign.

The Mariners will remain without Julio Rodriguez after he was placed on the seven-day concussion injured list on Friday. The star center fielder was hit in the back of the helmet by an errant throw while running the bases on Thursday in Seattle’s 1-0 victory against the Los Angeles Angels.

Utility man Miles Mastrobuoni was promoted from Triple-A Tacoma to fill Rodriguez’s roster spot.

–Field Level Media

Seven games of frustration were more than enough for the New York Yankees.

After snapping their ugly slide, the Yankees will shoot for another win Saturday afternoon when they host the Minnesota Twins.

New York ended its longest skid since dropping nine straight Aug. 12-22, 2023, in a season when it won 82 games and was without Aaron Judge for nearly two months due to a fractured toe.

The Yankees have played the past month with Judge, who is sidelined due to a right rib stress fracture. They are 13-15 without their captain, including a series-opening 5-2 win over Minnesota.

After batting .137 during the seven-game skid, New York did enough with six hits on Friday. Ben Rice hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the third inning, Trent Grisham homered and lifted a sacrifice fly, and Jose Caballero had an RBI single.

“It doesn’t feel good to lose so many games,” Rice said. “I think everyone in this room was ready to turn the corner. I’m happy we were able to get the win.”

Rice enters Saturday with 24 homers on the season but just seven hits in 49 at-bats (.143) over his past 13 games. Paul Goldschmidt is hitless in his past 20 at-bats while Cody Bellinger is in a 5-for-49 (.102) skid over his past 14 games.

Minnesota has lost 32 of its past 38 games at Yankee Stadium, regular season and postseason, and has just two wins in its past 14 meetings with the Yankees overall. The Twins went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position in the series opener and struck out 14 times against Gerrit Cole and four relievers.

“We’ve been good with runners in scoring position,” said Twins manager Derek Shelton, whose team is hitting a major-league-leading .285 in those situations. “Tonight we had a tough night. We didn’t get the big hit, which we’ve been getting.”

Kody Clemens homered and Victor Caratini hit an RBI single, but the Twins struck out at least 14 times for the fifth time this season. Royce Lewis fanned twice, and he heads into Saturday with three hits in his past 15 at-bats.

Twins center fielder Byron Buxton missed his fourth straight game because of right hip impingement.

Zebby Matthews (4-5, 4.15 ERA), who is 2-1 with a 2.25 ERA in his past three outings, starts for Minnesota on Saturday. Matthews has allowed two runs or fewer in six of his nine starts, including Monday in Houston, when he yielded one run on four hits in seven innings during a victory.

Matthews is 0-2 with a 12.46 ERA in a pair of starts against the Yankees. He allowed three runs on six hits in 5 2/3 innings during a 6-2 loss in New York on Aug. 11, 2025, and was tagged for nine runs on 11 hits in three innings in a 10-9 defeat on Sept. 16, 2025, in Minneapolis.

Carlos Rodon was scheduled to start on Saturday until the Yankees put him on the 15-day injured list with left elbow inflammation on Friday. Instead, Brendan Beck (0-0, 6.00 ERA) will make his first career start and second career major league appearance.

Beck made his major league debut by allowing two runs in a three-inning relief outing on May 7 against the Texas Rangers. At Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this year, the 27-year-old right-hander is 7-2 with a 3.58 ERA in 16 starts, having struck out 91 in 88 innings.

New York rookie center fielder Spencer Jones was optioned to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after the Friday game. Jones hit .233 with two homers and seven RBIs in 30 games with the Yankees.

–Field Level Media