'I felt good': Espino K's career-high seven

NEW YORK -- The last time Paolo Espino pitched at Citi Field, his start was dashed after one inning, when the game was suspended because of inclement weather. Two and a half weeks later, rain and lightning delayed the first pitch of his outing by 20 minutes. This time, though, Espino’s night would not be cut short.

The 34-year-old right-hander recorded a career-high seven strikeouts over five innings in the Nationals’ 2-1 win over the Mets on Friday. He allowed one run (a homer to Javier Báez) and three hits without issuing a walk. Espino tossed 49 of his 68 pitches for strikes while mixing in his four-seam fastball (47%), curveball (25%), slider (22%) and changeup (6%). He credited the command of his fastball and spin of his slider for his success.

“I was pretty much trusting all my pitches,” Espino (4-4, 4.13 ERA) said. “I felt good, arm felt good and my command was working real good.”

With this zero-walk performance, Espino ranks fourth in fewest walks per nine innings (1.67) among National League pitchers with at least 80 innings pitched, trailing only Jacob deGrom, Zach Eflin and Clayton Kershaw.

“Him not walking guys is great,” said manager Dave Martinez. “As we always talk about, walks get you in trouble. Free passes get you in trouble. He threw strikes today, he moved the ball around like we talked about, he used all four quadrants with his fastball and his curveball was really good today as well. So, he pitched well.”

For Espino, it was a bounce-back performance from his previous starts in August. Excluding the one-inning stint on Aug.10, he had surrendered 14 earned runs across 13 1/3 frames this month.

After Espino threw five strong innings, Martinez was able to follow the pitching plan he had mapped out pregame and turned to Andres Machado to face the top of the Mets’ order in the sixth.

“I was feeling good, but I also understand how the game goes,” Espino said. “Those are decisions that they make throughout the game, and I respect that. It was a great decision -- the bullpen did an awesome job.”

Machado, Sam Clay, Kyle McGowin and Kyle Finnegan (sixth save of the season) combined to throw four scoreless innings in relief. Consider it redemption for Finnegan, who took the loss in the Nats’ 5-4 defeat on Aug. 12 at Citi Field.

“Last time I stepped on that mound it didn’t go so well for me, so I really wanted that one,” Finnegan said. “When it works out exactly as you hope it [would], it’s awesome.”

With his own strong outing and the support of his teammates out of the ‘pen, Espino earned his first win since July 30.

“It’s great to see how they were able to command the ball, attack the zone and get those quick outs,” Espino said. “It was really nice seeing how they were able to do everything they did today.”