WASHINGTON — Lionel Messi was not at Audi Field Saturday afternoon. He was resting a strained hamstring back in South Florida. But the Argentine star’s impact on Inter Miami was felt, as his teammates beat D.C. United, 3-1, without him.

Street vendors hawked Messi shirts, scarves, and bucket hats on every corner outside the stadium, in English and Spanish.

Thousands of fans in pink Messi No. 10 jerseys and No. 10 Argentina shirts roared with each of Miami’s goals, the first by Leo Campana in the 24th minute and the second and third by Uruguayan forward Luis “El Pistolero” (The Gunslinger) Suarez, who came off the bench in the 62nd minute and showed why he is one of the most prolific goal scorers of his generation.

Suarez has six goals and five assists over his first seven games in a Miami shirt.

“You know the quality he has, so he obviously brings a little different dimension in the sense that you want to give him a couple of chances and he might put one away pretty quickly,” said Miami midfielder Julian Gressel. “You can always feel a little burst of energy when a player of his quality comes on.”

Miami coach Tata Martino said of Suarez: “When you talk about Luis, it’s a similar situation as Leo (Messi), Busi, Jordi. It’s nothing new. These are things he has done during his entire career. We had decided he would play 30 minutes and he changed the game for us. It makes me very happy because every game he looks better and the facility with which he scores goals is a great asset for us.”

Inter Miami remains atop the Eastern Conference with three wins, a tie and a loss (10 points), despite playing two league games in a row without Messi.

D.C. struck first on Saturday when Jared Stroud got between Miami defenders Noah Allen and Nico Freire and ripped a rocket of a shot to the top left corner in the 14th minute. Campana scored the equalizer for Miami 10 minutes later on a left-footed shot from the center of the box that began with a penetrating run and pass from Fede Redondo.

Messi was not the only star missing from the Inter Miami starting lineup Saturday. Suarez and Jordi Alba came in late off the bench and Sergiy Kryvtsov entered in the 31st minute when Freire left the field injured.

Instead of Messi and Suarez leading the attack, it was Robert Taylor, Campana and Gressel, with Diego Gomez, Sergio Busquets and Rodondo in midfield. The back line was Allen at left back, in place of Alba, Freire, Tomas Aviles and David Ruiz. Drake Callender started in goal.

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