Pirates top Nationals, 8-5, despite Danny Espinosa's first career home run

PITTSBURGH - The Washington Nationals lost again Friday night. They lost in a half-empty stadium. They lost to a last-place team that had won five of its previous 23 games and cemented itself as the worst in the majors. They lost one game removed from allowing 16 runs and fighting with their opponents. They lost while their manager watched from a suite high above the field and after the league suspended their center fielder for eight games. They lost to fall 21 games under .500, matching their season low point.

It was not the best night to be supporting the Nationals. But still, among all the bleakness, the Nationals could cull one happy subplot out of their 8-5 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates before 19,734 at PNC Park, one bright spot to counterbalance Livan Hernandez's eight-run, 41/3-inning start and bench coach John McLaren's first night in the Nationals' manager's office.

The final month of the Nationals' season will be more about the future than the present, and so the Nationals could find solace in the first career start of second baseman Danny Espinosa, who woke up Wednesday in Syracuse. After flying to Florida and making his debut Wednesday, Espinosa went 2 for 4 with his first career home run and an RBI double Friday, with his family and his girlfriend watching from the stands.

Espinosa lined his first home run to the opposite field while batting right-handed. Espinosa, a switch hitter, smoked his double to the left-center gap while batting left-handed. He also made a slick turn on a 5-4-3 double play, the precise play General Manager Mike Rizzo wants Espinosa to master as he transitions from shortstop to second.

"He's such a talent," said McLaren, who subbed for Jim Riggleman as the regular manager served the first of a two-game suspension. "He's exciting. I'm excited about this kid. Him and [Ian] Desmond, you can see those guys together for a long, long time. I love the kid."

In the third inning Friday, leading off and batting right-handed, Espinosa unleashed his swing on a pitch from Pirates starter Zach Duke - "something middle-away," he said. He lined it to the opposite field, over the scoreboard in right.

"It was a great feeling," Espinosa said. "One of those sweet feelings when you don't even feel the ball coming off the bat."

McLaren said, "That ball was a missile."

McLaren first watched Espinosa play last year in the Arizona Fall League, when he scouted for the Tampa Bay Rays. (He did not lobby for the Rays to trade for Espinosa. "I knew better than that," he said. "They weren't giving him up.") McLaren immediately recognized a natural talent.

"He's improved a lot since then," McLaren said. "I thought he over-swung quite a bit. He's cut his swing down. I know the kid loves playing baseball. You can see it. Just one of those rare kids - he's a born baseball player."

Espinosa's instincts have helped him make a rapid transition to second base. Before mid-August, when he started playing every other day for Class AAA Syracuse, Espinosa last played second base in high school. "I was younger and I was a lot smaller," he said. Four hours before first pitch Friday, he practiced positioning and double plays with infield coach Pat Listach and Riggleman.

The Nationals believe Espinosa will be part of a contending team. On Friday, his performance only made it a little easier to dream. The Pirates smacked around Hernandez, who, in his first start after signing a one-year contract for next season, allowed eight runs on eight hits and two walks. His night ended with a four-run fifth.

"Don't think I ever get frustrated," Hernandez said. "That's not the way I pitch. If I ever get frustrated, what is it going to do? When it's not your day, it's not your day."

The Nationals responded with four runs in the sixth, knocking out Duke. The first four Nationals of the inning reached base. Adam Dunn singled in Desmond for the first run. Justin Maxwell drove in another run. Espinosa, three innings after roping his first career home run to the opposite field, finished the rally with an RBI double into the left-center field gap.

Espinosa's drive to left-center illustrated why he is in the major leagues as a September call-up, reaching the goal he set for himself in the spring. His season stalled at first because, hitting left-handed, he slumped. Coaches told him he needed to let the ball travel more before he swung, to stay back. Once Espinosa improved, his season took off.

"It was really tough in the beginning," Espinosa said. "I finally got to a consistent swing and I was able to repeat my swing. I was able to learn about myself and start learning my own swing. That was the first time, this year, I was actually learning my own swing."

Espinosa had a chance to make an even bigger impact. In the eighth, Espinosa came to bat with two on and the Nationals down three. It could have been a storybook ending, but that is not the kind of week the Nationals are having. Reliever Chris Resop struck him out, ending a potential game-tying rally. Joel Hanrahan, formerly a Nationals reliever, closed the door in the ninth.

The Nationals, on a night for searching hard for reasons to be optimistic, would have to settle for the home run ball sitting in Espinosa's locker and hope it will be the first of many.