Washington Nationals news & notes: Patrick Corbin 100th career W; 8-3 win over Rockies;

Corbin’s 100th win:

Patrick Corbin earned his 98th career win of his 12-year major league career on May 10 in his eighth start of the season. The 35-year-old Corbin earned his 99th career win on July 19 in his 20th start of the 2024 season.

On Thursday afternoon, Washington’s left-handed starting pitcher earned his 100th career win in the Nationals’ 8-3 victory. Colorado RockiesHe pitched six innings, throwing 95 pitches and 64 strikes, allowing four hits, one walk, one earned run and a solo home run.

“No matter how long it takes, 100 wins is still a big win,” Nationals captain Davey Martinez told reporters after his team won two of three games in their series against the Rockies.

“So, congratulations to him and his family,” Martinez added. “The thing about Patrick is he’s a competitive guy. He goes out there every five days, he gets the ball in his hands, he’ll throw 110 pitches if we ask him to. He’s awesome. He’s great with the young guys in the clubhouse and he’s one of the big reasons why our young guys are doing so well. He really is. He’s always talking to them and engaging them. I can’t say enough about Patrick.”

“Congratulations again. He’s amazing. I know he wants 150 wins, but he’s done well for us. Without him we wouldn’t be here. World SeriesThat’s all I can say about Patrick: Let’s see if he can win a few more championships this year.”

“I wish it had happened sooner,” Corbyn acknowledged after his win, according to MASN reporter Mark Zuckerman. “It’s a great thing. I think we’ll look back on it in hindsight.”

“I’ve been here for a little while now to be able to do something like this. It’s pretty cool.”

Corbin pitched efficiently, striking out eight of the 22 batters he faced, splitting his slider, sinker and cutter almost evenly and striking out 12 batters in total and 14 batters in total.

“His cutter was good,” Martinez said. “He used both sides of the plate, but the cutter was especially good today. The slider was effective as well, but for the most part, the ball was thrown low. The two-seam fastball was really good to throw low, so he got a lot of early swings and got some effective strikeouts with just his fastball.”

Corbin got plenty of help as James Wood hit a two-run single in the third inning to score two runs to make it 2-0, Cavert Ruiz doubled in the sixth to score one run to make it 3-1, Luis Garcia Jr. singled to score one run to make it 4-1, and Jose Tena added a one-run single in the bottom half of the sixth to make it 5-1. Juan Yepes hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning to make it 8-1.

Martinez said Wood’s two-run single was “a big hit for us to score,” and that “… our offense contributed throughout the entire game.”

“It was great to see Yepes hit that big home run, but they’ve really been swinging the bat well the last few days.”

Garcia Jr.’s big year:

Luis Garcia Jr. was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer in the Nationals’ 6-1 win over the Rockies, but despite his years of experience, the 24-year-old has posted a career-best and team-best 3.1 fWAR with a .294/.329/.464 slugging average, 22 doubles and 15 home runs in 111 games and 405 at-bats.

For a player who came into spring training this year needing to prove he was worthy of a spot on the major league roster, Garcia Jr.’s breakout season was a welcome and well-timed surprise.

“He has a hit in 16 of his last 20 games,” the Nationals emphasized in their game notes after Wednesday’s win.

“He is batting .375 (27 hits in 72 at-bats), slugging .597 (four doubles, four home runs) and 12 RBIs.[s]During that time, he walked six, stole four bases and scored 12 runs.”

“He’s really good, and I’m not just talking about his hitting,” manager Davey Martinez told reporters at the post-game press conference. “His defense is a lot better, his base running is a lot better, his game overall is a lot better. But he’s working hard. I’ve talked to him, and he was a little tough at the beginning, but this is all because of him. He’s working hard, [reaping] “We’re not benefiting from it right now. Let him carry on and finish the rest of the season strong. He’s doing great.”

Garcia said the fifth-year veteran, who has a career batting average of .272/.304/.413 with 32 doubles and 15 home runs in 162 games, is really coming into his own and, as reporters pointed out, is still quite young.

“Pretty young? He’s young,” Martinez laughed. “He’s really young. He got here at a young age, but he’s starting to understand his potential and he’s playing consistently, which is great. All we ask of them is consistency, and he’s done everything we’ve asked of him for years and he’s having a really good year.”

Part of that maturity is the consistency of having slow periods throughout the season but not as sluggish as in the past.

Photo by Jess Rapfogel/Getty Images

“He’s just focused on getting to the next at-bat,” Martinez said. “If something doesn’t go his way, he forgets about it. His big thing is he doesn’t carry it over. If he’s hitless for two at-bats, he doesn’t carry it over, he just focuses on the at-bat in front of him and tries to get to the next ball. He’s gotten so much better at that, and I think that’s just maturity. We’ve always told him, ‘You can hit it. I know you can hit it. But you’ve got to figure out what you can hit, what kind of ball you can hit.’ So when all of a sudden the ball starts being hit off the bottom, he knows right away, ‘I’ve got to hit that ball high. I’ve got to hit that ball really high.’ And he focuses on hitting that ball high. And then when he gets to two strikes, he’s so much better. When he gets to two strikes, he hits it a little bit shorter and tries to hit the ball.”

The ability to overcome failure and keep moving forward has been a key development for Garcia, Martinez said.

“Sometimes it takes time. You know, it took a few years with Lewis. But we knew he had the talent. And what he’s doing offensively is elevating his level defensively. The two go hand in hand.”

Garcia Jr. had two hits in four at-bats in the Nationals’ 8-3 win on Thursday, and as the Nationals noted, he is currently “…having a hit in 17 of his last 21 games…batting .382 (29-for-76) with a .587 batting average.” [SLG] (4 doubles, 4 home runs), 13 RBIs[s]During that time, he walked six, stole five bases and scored 12 runs.”

Shikorabbit:

“He was a potential first-round draft pick this year,” Chris Klein, then assistant general manager and vice president of scouting and now special assistant to GM Mike Rizzo, told reporters after the Nationals selected 6-foot-6 right-hander Travis Sikora in the third round of the 2023 draft.

“He had some issues with his form over the summer,” Klein continued. “He was straining his form, hitting his head a little bit and had a lot of rebound.” [He] “He’s really honed his game in a short amount of time this year, looking a lot more polished and effortless than he used to be. He’s a young guy who can reach 300 mph with his fastball. He’s shown glimpses of an above-average slider, a whip-out type pitch that can get you out. He has a split finger, but will probably eventually ditch it for a more traditional changeup, but he’s big, has a great arm and has the makings of a plus slider.”

As the Nationals noted in their press release about his selection, Pitchum “struck out 108 batters in 58.0 innings (16.76 K/9)” as a senior at Round Rock High School in Round Rock, Texas, allowing just seven earned runs on 22 hits (1.09 ERA) and only 15 walks (2.33 BB/9).”

“He was ranked 36th in the draft. Baseball America He was selected as the No. 40 draft prospect by MLBPipeline.com.”

Washington selected him with the 71st overall pick and signed him with a $6.2 million bonus.

“I’ve actually known him for a long time,” West Coast Crosschecker’s Mark Baca said the night Sikora was drafted, “…going back to a couple of summers ago, he was on the radar and was projected to probably be picked somewhere around the middle of the first round going into this year, so I think we were very fortunate to get him where we were.”

Sikora, a 20-year-old pitcher for Class A Fredericksburg this season, has a 2.47 ERA with 22 walks (2.71 per nine innings) and 111 strikeouts (13.68 per nine innings) in 17 starts and 73 innings. He’s also been on a strikeout spree in recent weeks, striking out 10 batters in three of his last five starts while batting .119/.149/.155 with a 1.09 ERA.

“He’s a big-bodied pitcher out of Texas who we paid a lot of money for a third-round pick a few years ago,” the GM and president of baseball operations said. Mike Rizzo told DC’s Sports Junkies 106.7 FAN. When asked this week what was going on in Fredericksburg.

“He’s a promising right-handed pitcher who has developed pretty quickly, with a high 90s velocity. [mph] He’s scored over 100 runs 100 times. He’s got a great slider, a great changeup and great velocity. He’s a great player.”

And while he’s looked strong this season, Rizzo added that Sikora is “just scratching the surface and beginning to come into his own.”