A kid named Lincoln got to call the shots for the Washington Nationals on Thursday, and the team made it a day to remember by blanking the Chicago Cubs 7-0 at Nationals Park. Lincoln served as guest manager for the game, per the Washington Nationals, joining the club in the dugout as pitcher Cade Cavalli carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning on his way to eight shutout innings and 10 strikeouts.
The Nationals confirmed Lincoln's role coaching the team for the day, according to WJLA, with the outing organized around Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic, the regional chapter that serves families across Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Northern Virginia. The experience falls under what Make-A-Wish officially classifies as an “I wish to be” wish, a category the organization uses for kids who want to step into a role or profession for a day, according to Make-A-Wish. Travel and celebrity meet-and-greets still make up the largest share of wishes granted nationwide, but sports-based experiences like Lincoln's remain a staple offering for young patients.
A Scoreless Game Turns Into a Rout
The game Lincoln oversaw stayed scoreless into the fifth inning before Washington's bats broke it open. First baseman Abimelec Ortiz launched a three-run home run that capped a five-run fifth inning for the Nationals, as detailed by Bleacher Nation. Cavalli's dominant start, which included a no-hit bid broken up in the seventh, gave Lincoln's day on the bench an extra jolt of drama beyond the final score.
Nationals Park has hosted Make-A-Wish moments before, including welcoming wish recipients from around the country during Major League Baseball's All-Star Week activities, according to Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic. The ballpark has offered behind-the-scenes dugout and field access to visiting wish families as part of that recurring role, giving Thursday's guest-managing stint a place within a longer tradition at the stadium.
A Regional Chapter With Growing Demand
Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic marked a major milestone in March 2023, celebrating 11,000 wishes granted since the chapter's founding, after more than four decades of serving children with critical illnesses in the D.C. area. Yet the need keeps growing. The chapter's February Wish Ball gala in Washington raised more than $1.61 million, and organizers noted that over 500 children in the region are diagnosed annually with illnesses that qualify them for a wish, according to Washington Life Magazine. For every wish granted locally, at least one more child remains on the waiting list.
The scale of the need extends well beyond the D.C. region. A 2024 global study by Make-A-Wish International estimated that roughly 1.25 million children worldwide are diagnosed each year with a critical illness that could qualify them for a wish — the equivalent of one child every 25 seconds, per Make-A-Wish International. Medical advisors treat wish fulfillment as a meaningful non-pharmacological support tool for kids going through treatment, adding weight to experiences like Lincoln's day in the dugout.
DC Sports Franchises Keep Pitching In
The Nationals' charitable arm, Washington Nationals Philanthropies, runs community grantmaking and youth programming out of the Nationals Youth Baseball Academy in Wards 7 and 8, and hosts an annual Homecoming Gala to fund local youth initiatives. That infrastructure sits alongside cross-franchise partnerships elsewhere in the city's sports scene. In July, a joint charity auction between the Monumental Sports & Entertainment Foundation and Washington Nationals Philanthropies raised $38,706 for local causes, including Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic, by auctioning off co-branded Capitals and Nationals merchandise, according to the National Hockey League.
The Capitals have their own long-running tradition of hosting Make-A-Wish recipients, including an annual dedicated practice skate and player meet-and-greets during Hockey Fights Cancer month. Together, the region's professional teams have made granting on-ice or on-field access to pediatric patients a regular fixture of the D.C. sports calendar, with Lincoln's turn managing the Nationals fitting squarely into that pattern.
