Photo by Navy Yard Nats for TalkNats
Today, Patrick Corbin’s 7 2/3 innings of near perfection was enough to coverup for the little things that were not executed by his offense. Corbin pitched a 2-hitter of one-run baseball and was relieved by Kyle Barraclough who had to face Buster Posey to finish his line. ‘Bear Claw” got Posey, stranding his first inherited runner since 2017, to get out of the 8th inning keeping the margin at 4-1. Sean Doolittle got the save while getting into a jam in the 9th, but was good enough to perserve the Nats 4-2 win to get back over .500.
The Giants would not even get a baserunner until the 4th inning via a walk and Corbin promptly picked him off. For the home team, the Nats had plenty of baserunners but stranded too many as they had plenty of chances to blow the game open. That is part of the “little things” not executed, but Corbin’s gem and the work of the bullpen was enough to secure this win.
“He really wasn’t giving them any chance to get into any kind of rhythm,” Corbin’s battery-mate Yan Gomes said. “He was taking apart the corners. We were getting calls. I know their guys were kind of getting mad about it, but he was hitting that spot consistently. At some point, those calls are going to be made. And he just kept going right after it.”
Corbin lowered his season’s ERA to 2.36 along with 33 strikeouts and five walks. He recorded his first win with the Nats although he could easily be 4-0 at this point given how well he has pitched.
Down in Atlanta, the Braves were swept by the Diamondbacks which allowed the Nats to leapfrog the Braves in the standings.
The Nats had two scares in the game when Brandon Crawford hit Victor Robles on the hand on a relay throw on a double, and Juan Soto was hit on the left wrist by a hit-by-pitch with 1st base open and runners on second and third base. It was very suspect as to the intentions there, and Soto was initially in pain, but stayed in the game.
Behind the plate was a rookie umpire, Ryan Additon, who called out Anthony Rendon on a borderline pitch early in the game, but later it was Brandon Belt who argued a strikeout and manager Bruce Bochy was ejected in his last game as a visiting manager in Nationals Park. In Belt’s next at-bat he would be ejected after going ballistic after another strikeout.
The Nationals now head to Dulles Airport for their first charter flight since they flew to D.C. at the end of Spring Training nearly a month ago. All of the Nats other travel arrangements was on buses and trains this season traveling between New York and Philadelphia.
Happy flight as it is for most players who finished strong in this series.
