On Sunday afternoon in Citi Field, his two-run ninth-inning double broke a 1-1 tie and lifted the Reds to a save-face 3-1 victory over the New York Mets.
It ended New York’s nine-game winning streak and kept the Reds from absorbing a three-game sweep.
And it was a save-face hit for Espinal after he was embarrasingly picked off first base in the fifth inning when it was 0-0 and the Reds had runners on first and third with no outs. He also struck out in the seventh when it was 0-0 with a runner on second.
When Espinal came to bat in the ninth with runners on third and second with one out, the Mets had gone 80 straight innings without being behind in a game.
Espinal ended that with his second hit of the game and his batting average in his last 38 games is .399.
Alex Diaz pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 26th save, concluding a brilliant pitching day by the Reds staff.
Rookie Julian Aguiar started and shut the potent Mets down on no runs and and two hits over 4 2/3 innings. Tony Santillian gave up a run and two hits in one inning.
Then Emilio Pagan, Justin Wilson, Buck Farmer and Diaz pitched 3 1/3 hitless innings and retired the final 10 Mets, five via strikeouts.
Espinal, the ultimate contact hitter who seldom strikes out, struck out twice and had a bloop single when he came to bat in the ninth.
New York’s Phil Maton started the ninth and hit Spencer Steer with a pitch. Ty France beat an infield single over the third base bag. Jake Fraley moved the runners to second and third with a ground ball to second.
Espinal had driven in a runner from third with less than two outs 62% of the time this year. The count was 2-and-2 when he pulled Maton’s 75 mph curveball into left field for the two winning runs.
During his post-game interview on Bally Sports Ohio, Espinal uttered the cliche, “Like I always say, I was just trying to put the ball in play.”
That, of course, is the objective of every batter that plants two feet in the batter’s box, but Espinal is more adept at doing it than most.
“I knew they were playing in and I just wanted to put the ball in play, make some contact,” he added. “As soon as I got to two strikes, I wan’t worried about striking out. I just wanted to put the ball in play and make something happen.”
What he made happen was a game-winning hit, only the second hard-contact hit by the Reds all day. They collected seven hits, but five were either in the infield or soft bloopers.
Of his multidue of clutch hits, Espinal said, “Just confident and believing in me. I believe in what I can do and it played out.”
While Aguiar was keeping the Mets quiet, the Reds kept putting runners on base and either leaving them there or making mistakes.
Elly De La Cruz walked to open the fourth, then unwisely tried to steal second. As good as Elly is at thievery, Mets catcher Luis Torrens is just as good at throwing out would-be theives.
And he threw out De La Cruz, the 14th time this season De La Cruz had been caught while stealing 63.
In the fifth Fraley doubled and Espinal blooped a single to right, putting runners on first and third with no outs. Mets pitcher Luis Severino then picked Espinal off first base. Noelvi Marte struck out and Will Benson struck out, leaving it at 0-0.
Severino entered the game 3-0 in his last four starts with a no-decision. And he held the Reds to one run and five hits over 6 2/3 innings with eight strikeouts.
The Mets broke through first in the sixth inning against Santillan on a walk to Pete Alonso, an infield hit by Jose Iglesias and a run-scoring two-out single by Starling Marte. That gave the Mets a 1-0 lead.
The Reds had gone 18 straight scoreless innings when France opened the seventh with an infield single when Severino neglected to cover first on a grounder to the right side.
Fraley forced France at second and Espinal struck out for the second out. Fraley took second on a wild pitch and scored on a single by Noelvi Marte after he struck out his first two times.
That made it 1-1 and set up Espinal’s ninth-inning heroics.
“We gotta keep going and wake up the bats,” said Espinal. “I feel like we’ve been doing a good job overall. Things are not going our way, but we still have to go out there and compete every day.”
While the hitters have been dormant, the Reds pitching staff that is held together by bailing wire and duct tape has been more than productive.
The entire original rotation is on the injured list and relief pitcher Sam Moll joined them on the IL after Saturday’s game.
“Not just Aguiar, well, good job by Aguiar, but good jobs by every pitcher we have (available),” said Espinal. “It is unbelievable, the job they’re doing. It is not easy. Not many teams are going through this. What they’re going through is not easy and it’s hard to do, but they’re doing it.”
The Reds make a quick stop Monday for one game in Atlanta to make up a rained out game, then visit St. Louis for three and Minnesota for three.
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