Lara makes positive impression in long-awaited debut

The outcome of Wednesday afternoon’s game had long since been decided by the time Andry Lara took the mound in the top of the seventh. The Nationals were well on their way to an 11-2 loss to the Tigers, a result that felt preordained the moment Trevor Williams was roughed up for six innings during a torturous top of the first.

None of that, of course, mattered to Lara. When the lanky right-hander trotted in from the bullpen, the score of the game was insignificant. The fact he was pitching in a major league game was.

“It’s incredible,” he said, via interpreter Mauricio Ortiz. “It’s something I’ve dreamed about since I was a kid, me and my family. I just don’t have any words.”

Lara’s major league debut, in which he tossed three scoreless innings and struck out four, was probably the lone bright spot of Wednesday’s lopsided loss. But it helped keep the rest of the Nats bullpen fresh heading into the nightcap of the doubleheader, and it gave Lara a long-awaited opportunity to face big league hitters.

Six years after the Nationals signed him out of Venezuela for $1.25 million, with a rocky path in front of him, Lara finally made his debut. The 22-year-old actually had been called up for the team’s Easter Sunday doubleheader in Colorado, but neither game presented the right situation for him to pitch, so he returned to Triple-A Rochester afterward.

In the three months since, Lara saw his ERA in Rochester balloon to 10.47. A hamstring injury then sidelined him throughout all of May, and he was sent to lower levels (first to Single-A Wilmington, then recently to Double-A Harrisburg) to work his way back. In his most recent start, he gave up six runs and seven hits in 2 2/3 innings to the Akron Rubber Ducks.

Wednesday’s doubleheader opened the door for another call-up, though, and this time Lara made the most of it. Facing one of the toughest lineups in the majors – albeit in a blowout – he immediately struck out the first batter he faced, Trey Sweeney, with an 88 mph slider. A couple of groundouts followed, and he was back in the dugout after a 1-2-3 inning.

Was he nervous at all?

“Just in the bullpen,” he said. “But after the first pitch, everything passed. … I was just enjoying the moment, the opportunity.”

Lara returned for the top of the eighth and once again retired the side, this time striking out Riley Greene (who had already homered twice in the game) with a 96 mph fastball at the top of the zone. And because his pitch count remained low, he came back for the top of the ninth and overcame a leadoff single to strike out two more during another scoreless frame.

“He threw everything for strikes,” manager Davey Martinez said. “It was awesome. His two-seam, his four-seam, everything was effective. It was awesome to see him come in there the last three innings and pump strikes like that.”

The Nationals sent Lara back to Harrisburg at the end of the night, a required move for the extra player called up for doubleheaders. It remains to be seen if he gets another opportunity. Whether he does or doesn’t, he’ll always have his debut. It may have come a little later than hoped, and with his team trailing by nine runs. But he certainly isn’t complaining about the result.

“They just told me to enjoy the moment,” he said. “I know that I was born for this, and I worked really hard for this.”