Corbin scores:
Patrick Corbin, 34, took the mound Thursday afternoon and has scored 71 points in 13 starts. 2⁄3 Entering the final season of his six-year, $140 million contract with the Washington Nationals, he posted a 6.15 ERA, 5.23 FIP, 27 walks (3.39 per nine innings), 44 strikeouts (5.53 per nine innings) and 12 home runs allowed (1.51 per nine innings) with a .321 ERA, .374 on-base percentage and .558 slugging percentage.
The 14th start was initially postponed, so the struggling starting pitcher (In his last five starts, he’s 0-4 with a 6.52 ERA and a 6.84 FIP with a .288 ERA/.350 on-base percentage/.586 slugging percentage* in 29 innings.) allows you to rest both mentally and physically.
“A little bit of both,” Nationals manager Davey Martinez told reporters Sunday morning, “… obviously. He’s part of our pitching staff. He pitches a lot. He’s a guy that’s routinely pitching five, six, seven innings for us. So I wanted to give him a little bit of a break.”
“He’s pitching well.”
But left-hander MacKenzie Gore, who was scheduled to start the series finale in Detroit, had a nail injury that changed the rotation plans again, postponing his start for Friday’s series opener against Miami.
“Yes, we’re going to use Corbin,” Martinez said Wednesday.
“Mackenzie Gore is postponed for one day. He’s got a little bit of a problem with the nails on his throwing hand. [and he said] One more day would definitely help. Corbin is OK. So we’re going to use Corbin tomorrow to push Mackenzie back.”
Corbin, still on extra rest, pitched his strongest game of the season, as the left-hander limited the Tigers to just four hits, two walks and one run in five innings. 1⁄3 He threw 94 pitches in one inning, 58 of which were strikes, and he struck out four batters, striking out swinging only eight times, but a total of 15 pitches were strikes, of which eight were sinkers and five were sliders.One each of a four-seam fastball and a changeup).
After leaving three runners on base through the first two innings, Corbin allowed a bunt and then a grounder to center field that put a runner on base, but C.J. Abrams dove (hard) to throw to first base just a little late, and a half-assed ball to left field landed between three charging Nationals for the only run of his time on the mound.
Unfortunately, the Nationals’ recent trend of going 0-5 and scoring just seven runs in their last five starts with Corbin in the starting rotation continued against the Tigers, with two sacrifice flies by Ildemaro Vargas (The club’s fifth and sixth sacrifice flies of the series) lost 7–2, but those were the only two runs the team scored.
“He was really good,” Martinez said after the game. “You’ve got to score runs for him. He kept us in the game. We just didn’t score runs. But I thought he pitched well. He was in some high-leverage situations and pitch counts and he gave it his all. As far as knowing him, he’s a pitcher that steps up and competes. I like that.”
Corbin retired all three batters in the fourth inning, allowed a hit by pitch with one out in the fifth, and got one out in the sixth, but with the score tied at 1-1, relief pitcher Derek Law gave up a home run with two outs to make the score 2-1. After the Nationals tied the score in the seventh inning, they allowed three consecutive hits with one out to make it 3-2 and a sacrifice fly made it 4-2, and then Robert Garcia allowed a one-RBI single, a walk, and a two-run double to make the score 7-2.
“Look, we’ve relied on those guys all year and they’ve done a really good job,” Martinez said after a bullpen collapse ended the team’s longest five-game winning streak in years.
“We weren’t able to do that today. Corbin gave us his all. We had a lot of pitches and we had to rely on our bullpen. And like I said, they’ve been really good all year.”
“It’s just one game. The series is won. Now we go home and start a new game and a new winning streak.”
Lane Thomas out:
Lane Thomas was ejected by home plate umpire Emil Jimenez after muttering an obscenity after a 96 mph, 2-2 fastball from Casey Mize in the top of the sixth inning was called for strike three and shocked the outfielder and infuriated the manager.
Thomas and Davey Martinez (Also featuring Jesse Winker) argued that the obscenity was not directed at the umpire but was an expression of annoyance within the umpire’s earshot.
Martinez was not happy with the umpire’s decision to eject the right fielder.
“He dropped the ‘midfielder’ and the referee called him out. He said he looked straight at him and said that. I said, ‘That’s what we saw,'” Martinez told reporters after the match.
“And he was adamant that Lane said that, but he didn’t say that. If you know Lane, he wouldn’t do that. So I thought it was an untimely ejection. It really was. So the league will look into it and hopefully do something about it. But this game is emotional. If he thought he made a bad pitch, he has the right to say something and walk out. But he didn’t say anything to Lane, he just thought it was a bad pitch, hushed up and got out. And Lane looked at him. So we’ll see what the league says.”
“We literally have video and voice audio. He never said that. It’s just so awful. It makes me even more angry.”
Kevin Fransen reacts to umpire Emil Jimenez ejecting Lane Thomas when there was no actual altercation. pic.twitter.com/qxc5nDL8uQ
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 13, 2024
Lipscomb’s role:
With Joey Gallo placed on the 10-day disabled list on Wednesday, the Nationals brought back Trey Lipscomb for the third time this year, giving the 23-year-old another chance in the majors after he batted .252 with a double, a home run, nine RBIs, 11 walks, 10 stolen bases and 16 runs scored in 33 games over his first two years in the majors.
“He can play multiple positions, so we can use him in a variety of scenarios,” Nationals captain Davey Martinez explained when asked why he chose Lipscomb over Gallo.
“We’re going to use him as much as we can, but knowing he can play third, short, second, first and left field definitely helps.”
Martinez stressed during Lipscombe’s first two years with the team that Lipscombe is in a developmental stage and needs to play every day, and his versatility on the defensive end makes that easy.
Photo: Quinn Harris/Getty Images
“We don’t want to just have him come off the bench,” Martinez reiterated after the latest call-up was officially announced, “so we’re going to find a place to use him. Like I said, we’ll be able to use him at third base at some point.” [third baseman Nick] Senzel might take a day off or pitch as a DH, so there’s a chance to get Senzel in the game, especially against the lefties coming up.”
What does the director want from Lipscomb this time around?
“He’s young, so we want him to work on a lot of different things, but the key is consistency,” Martinez said.
“He still wants to get some more hits on his legs, but he’s feeling good. We’ve called him up today.”
“We put him up to bat early. Darnell [Coles] To keep an eye on him, and C.J. [Chris Johnson]We’ll see where he is and continue to work with him.”
Lipscomb did not play in either of the team’s first two games in Detroit, but Martinez said he plans to use him immediately.
“He’s going to play. We’ve got a couple of left-handers coming up so we’ll use him there. We haven’t decided where we’ll put him yet but he’ll be playing here in the next few days.”
