This very well might be a jinx, but here we are:
Washington Nationals rookie Daylen Lile has the longest active hitting streak in baseball.
Lile enters Thursday night with a 14-game hit streak.
It's quite the improbable reality.
Not because Lile doesn't have talent, though. He was a second-round pick out of a Louisville-area high school in 2021. He made a pretty solid climb through the minors to make his MLB debut earlier this season as a 22-year old.
But also, before the hit streak began, Lile was hitting .152 at the MLB level.
Then on June 21, Lile hit a double, and he was off and running.
In his last 14 games, he's 17-for-52 (.327 average) with a pair of doubles and a pair of steals.
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His average has risen nearly 100 points to .245.
He's not quite as highly regarded as some of the Nats' top prospects, but for every team to reach its fullest potential, it also needs to develop its middling prospects into starter-level players.
And if Lile can get a hit every game he plays, he may just enter himself into the long-term conversation.
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