By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Paolo Espino matched his longest outing of the season including four shutout frames to close his work for the day.
The effort wasn’t enough as the host Rochester Red Wings dropped an 8-2 decision to Buffalo before 4,487 at Innovative Field, Sunday afternoon.
Espino fanned three and allowed five runs (one earned) on five hits and two walks over six innings.
“That’s what I expect from him every time; it’s nothing new,” Wings manager Matt LeCroy said. “He doesn’t make excuses. He keeps throwing it over no matter how bad he is or how bad our defense is.”
The 5-foot-10 right-hander faced one over the minimum for his last four innings on the mound – a stretch in which he induced eight fly-ball outs.
“He was locating his fastball, and he used his breaking ball,” LeCroy said. “His curveball is a high-spin ball that a lot of people just can’t square up.”
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A four-run Buffalo second proved to be the decisive inning.
L.J. Talley reached on an error to start the stanza, and Luis De Los Santos followed with a fly ball into shallow left center that dropped among three Wings.
“Unfortunately, the defense just let him down there,” LeCroy said. “We didn’t make the plays that started that second inning. Most people would kinda give up, but he gave us six strong innings.”
Jamie Ritchie brought home the first run of the inning with an RBI-fielder’s choice. Tanner Morris added a run-scoring single before Otto Lopez cleared the bases with a two-out double to right center.
The Bisons sent eight to the plate in the inning and scored four runs on three hits including the flare to left that should have been caught.
“It’s just part of the game,” Espino said. “Stuff like that is going to happen. You just got to know how to deal with it. The easiest thing is to forget about it and keep going. It was only the second inning when stuff wasn’t going right. There was still a lot of baseball to play.”
Espino fell to 4-3 on the season. A 10th-round pick in the 2006 MLB Draft, Espino pitched 10 seasons in the minors before getting his first call to the majors in 2017 for Milwaukee. He made 42 appearances for the Washington Nationals in 2022 – 23 out of the bullpen. In 2021, Espino started 19 of his 39 trips to the mound for the Nats. All 13 of his appearances for the Wings this season have been starts. He’s averaging nearly five innings per outing.
“He keeps you in the game,” LeCroy said. “He eats up innings. That’s why he’s been in the big leagues.”
Erick Mejia plated Richie Martin with a two-out base hit in the third to get the Wings on the board. Jeter Downs singled and scored on a Travis Blankenhorn base hit to cut the deficit to three at 5-2 in the fifth.
That was as close as Rochester would get. The Wings managed one hit over the last four innings – a Jacob Nottingham leadoff single in the ninth.
Rochester fell to 6-6 (40-45 overall) for the second half of the season as the International League breaks for its All-Star Game.
“They’re beat up,” LeCroy said. “They’re tired. We don’t use that as an excuse, but it’s a tough game and long season, but the guys I expect them to come back and be ready, out together some good at-bats.”
The Wings will travel to play at Syracuse on Friday.
“We’re in a good spot. We just got to get everybody healthy and get rolling.”
Casey Lawrence allowed two runs (one earned) on six hits and a walk over six innings to pick up the win for Buffalo (6-5/40-46).
Davis Schneider gave the Bisons the lead with a two-out solo shot in the first inning.
Buffalo took advantage of three walks to score three runs off the Wings’ bullpen in the eighth.
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