Lile dealing with illness as Nats enter Yankee Stadium

NEW YORK – The Nationals will be short one of their young outfielders tonight as they begin a three-game series against the Yankees.

Daylen Lile is out of the starting lineup for the second straight game while dealing with an illness, interim manager Miguel Cairo revealed during his pregame media session. James Wood is starting in left field, Jacob Young in center and Dylan Crews in right as Robert Hassell III serves as the designated hitter for the first time in his young major league career.

“We don't have a Lile,” Cairo said. “He's been a little sick, so he's been out yesterday and today because of that. But besides that it's the same lineup.”

Lile was not seen around the Nats clubhouse before tonight’s game, with the Nats probably keeping him away from the rest of the team to prevent the disease from spreading to his teammates. This will be the first game Lile has missed since Tuesday’s opener against the Mets back home.

“He was throwing up a little bit and not feeling good,” Cairo said. “So hopefully he's ready tomorrow. We just want to make sure he's fine.”

The 22-year-old rookie is slashing .263..312/.396 with a .709 OPS, 31 runs scored, 12 doubles, four triples, three home runs, 22 RBIs and seven stolen bases in 63 games. Over his last 28 games, he’s batting .300 with six doubles, three triples, one homer, 14 RBIs, five walks, four stolen bases and 15 runs scored, and he has recorded 11 multi-hit efforts. He’s also reached base safely in 40 of his last 48 games, batting .292.

The signature moment of his rookie season probably came on Friday night, when he drove in Crews as the tying run off Phillies closer Jhoan Duran in the ninth inning and then scored the game-winning run on catcher J.T. Realmuto’s throwing error while attempting to steal third.

Lile’s absence may put more pressure on the four other young outfielders as they continue to fill all three defensive spots and the DH role. And with Lile out, the Nationals sure would love to see more production from Wood.

The towering outfielder is slashing .281/.324/.500 with an .824 OPS, eight doubles, two homers and 12 RBIs over his last 16 games. But he’s also struck out 42.6 percent of the time, which has brought his season strikeout rate to 31 percent from 26.1 percent over his first 90 games.

“I think he's been kind of like a little more passive than before,” Cairo said of Wood. “I know they were throwing out of the strike zone. When he's good, he's hitting the ball to left-center and middle of the field. That's who he is. And hopefully, he's going to come back. He's going to come back around and do what he's been doing.

“Like I said before, this is the first time that he's been playing a lot in his career. But I think that no matter how tired or whatever, you come to Yankee Stadium, it's like you get a different adrenaline. So hopefully they have it today.”

Cairo knows all about playing in front of the Yankees faithful. He spent parts of three seasons during his 17-year big league career in Pinstripes. And he tried to express what it’s like to play at Yankee Stadium to his young team.

“You got to embrace it. You got to go out there and enjoy it,” the interim skipper said. “I really enjoyed playing over here. And that was my message when we had our meeting today: Just embrace it. Have fun. Play the way you're supposed to play. And enjoy it.”

Although they’ve barely played since the team relocated to Washington, D.C. in 2005, the Nationals have actually had success against the Yankees. The Nats are 7-6 all-time in The Bronx and they are 15-14 overall against the Bombers.

“I hope that they embrace Yankee Stadium,” Cairo said. “It's a good experience. They're competitors. We're going to play a good team. We've been playing good teams. But you come into Yankee Stadium and, when you play the Yankees, they're a really good team. So we just got to go there and keep playing the way we've been playing.”

And the way the Nats have been playing has kept them in close games during this run against playoff-bound teams. Cairo sees this as another opportunity for the young squad to test its mettle against a storied franchise in yet another hunt for October.

“You've been seeing what they can do,” Cairo said of his team. “They've been playing hard, they've been playing smart, they've been getting good at-bats and we're playing 27 out. That's the message: Play 27 outs until the last pitch. They don't give up and they've been resilient about that. We're playing good defense, knock on wood. Hopefully, we can keep doing that and just do the little things. You gotta do the little things better than anyone, and you might have a chance to win games.”

* A few injury updates provided by the Nationals PR staff …

Josiah Gray (Tommy John surgery) threw 25 pitches in a live BP session on Saturday. His next live BP session is scheduled for Wednesday, during which he is slated to throw 30 pitches over two ups.

And Keibert Ruiz (concussion) continues to progress through his rehab protocol.