To earn his first career win, Washington Nationals right-hander Paolo Espino toiled for 15 years since he was drafted, made 342 appearances in the minors, threw in this odd place, then the next one, while his family in Panama hung on each pitch — hoping their husband, dad and son would stick. In other words, in only the 29th appearance of a career spent on the margins, Espino earned this.
That the Nationals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-1, was a bonus. That they did so to run their winning streak to four games was even better.
But Espino, 34, stole the thunder Wednesday with his efficiency and his past. He used 53 pitches to complete five scoreless innings. He was supported by Yan Gomes’s solo homer in the second. And later, the Nationals’ third sweep was sealed by Josh Bell’s two-run homer in the seventh, then Brad Hand’s five-out, 22-pitch save.
They are 30-35 with the National League East-leading New York Mets visiting this weekend. Before that, though, Manager Dave Martinez had Espino address the team, milestone in hand.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” Espino said. “I just told them I know how good this team is. I know we can do a lot better than we’ve been doing so far. And I know we can make it all the way to the end. That’s pretty much the message that I gave.”
Eleven days ago at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Espino did the math. He had never spent more than a month straight in the majors. With the Milwaukee Brewers in 2017, it was a spot start, then sent down, then a spot start, then sent down again. After the Brewers traded him to the Texas Rangers that year, Espino was up for September and made six relief appearances. Then he went right back to the fringes.
So in Philadelphia, it had been almost seven weeks since he was promoted to start in place of Stephen Strasburg. Espino checked the date on his watch to make sure. And when he took the mound Wednesday — this time in place of Max Scherzer — he was close to two full months in a dream. Pitching had taken him from Panama to Florida for high school, from high school to the draft, from the draft to the minors for a decade before his debut with the Brewers, spending each summer on a bus to some small town.
Then pitching brought him here.
“If you’re working somewhere for 10 years, why would you not keep working?” Espino said this month in Philadelphia when asked what has kept him in the game. “As long as I’m healthy and I can still pitch, I’m going to go as far as I can. I mean, this is the way I’m providing for my family and doing something that I really love. So why not?”
Espino landed with the Nationals on a minor league deal with an invite to spring training in 2020. He parlayed that into a fixed role at the club’s alternate site, then appeared in two games in September. This year, he expected to swing between Washington and Class AAA Rochester, over and over, on one odd-hour flight after the next. He thought that spot start in April would be followed by an invitation to Martinez’s office. Martinez would thank him for the effort and send him back to the minors. That’s how it always went.
Instead, the Nationals made him their primary mop-up reliever. The best way to hang around, Espino figured, was to pitch often and throw strikes. Then came this past Friday, when Scherzer faced two batters and exited with groin inflammation. The bullpen phone rang, and Espino jogged in, the same goals in his head. He limited the first-place San Francisco Giants to one run on three hits in 3⅓ innings. Martinez’s trust in him grew, one looping curve after another.
“We preach all the time, for these guys coming out of the bullpen, to throw strikes,” Martinez said. “And he proved that he can do that, and he does it really well. He mixes all his pitches up.”
Wednesday’s caps were about 50 pitches or two trips through the Pirates’ order. But with an eight-pitch first and then a nine-pitch second, Espino had a case to push deeper. He retired his first eight batters before Pirates starter Chase De Jong hit a two-out double in the third. In the fourth, Bryan Reynolds doubled with one out and Gregory Polanco followed with a single. Reynolds held at third as Polanco stole second. Yet neither made it farther, with Espino striking out Phillip Evans (on a high 89-mph fastball) before Ben Gamel tapped out to the right side.
Espino saw three more batters and retired them in order. He threw 39 of his 53 pitches for strikes, an effective approach against the swing-happy Pirates, and induced a lot of weak contact. He shaved his season ERA to 2.28 in 27⅔ innings. He and the Nationals just needed the bullpen and Bell to fill out the official box score. And when they did, Espino’s name was at the top.
“When I was drafted, I thought I was going to be in the big leagues by my fifth year,” Espino said with a laugh. “It definitely took a lot longer than I was hoping, my family was hoping and everybody hoping. But it was all worth it.”
