Davey Martinez explained to a reporter who had questioned the manager about the Nationals’ 34-year-old, 12-year veteran Patrick Corbin at this point in his career, “It’s more staying out of these 2-3-run innings for him,” but things spiral for an inning before he settles down and he gets some big outs for us. Before taking on the San Diego Padres in Monday’s series opening at Petco Park, Corbin narrowly avoided one of those spirals in his previous start.
Although Corbin held the Arizona Diamondbacks there last week in the nation’s capital with only one run allowed in the fourth inning in a five-inning, ninety-pitch effort, back-to-back singles, a base-loading walk, and a bases-loaded walk all contributed to a run being scored. After a 3-1 victory in which he was not given a decision, Corbin told reporters, “With the bases loaded, to give up just one there was huge.”
That might have altered the game’s flow and made it impossible to win. I placed myself in that predicament. It was enormous to confine it to just one. Before Corbin’s sixth season in Washington began, Martinez remarked, “He’s pitched well his last two outings, so we’re going to go from there.”
The manager clarified that for him to succeed, “it’s about keeping the ball down.” He’s got good cutter, good two-seamer, and good changeups.
“He’s really good at throwing the ball down.” He is struck as he tries to raise the ball. We simply need to keep talking to him about putting the ball down.
In the Padres’ second inning on Monday night, Corbin surrendered back-to-back singles on pitches below in the zone. Additionally, with one out and runners on first and third, he allowed Ha-Seong Kim to bunt single for the first of the inning’s three runs. In order to drive in two more runs, 3-0, Kyle Higashioka smashed a 0-1 sinker down but over the middle of the plate on a line to the right. However, Corbin retired 16 of the 17 hitters he faced after that, including 13 in a row to conclude his seven-inning, 97-pitch, 59-strike, five-hit effort. Corbin also had eight swinging strikes on the evening, seven of which were on his slider, and 18 called strikes, 12 of which were on his sinker.
After the game finished in extra innings, Martinez said, “Regardless of what people think of him, seven innings, he’s been pitching really well his last three outings,” as reported by Bobby Blanco of MASN. “He poured all of his energy into us. He had excellent pitching. I’m proud of him for that. With one run in the third on an RBI ground-rule double by Joey Meneses, a run in the fifth on an RBI single by Meneses, and an RBI single in the seventh by Meneses, the Nationals tied things up at 3-3, and it stayed tied through nine. Meneses started the night on a nice (sustained) run, with hits in 10 of his last 12 games, and three doubles, a home run, seven RBIs, three walks, and six runs scored over that stretch.In his previous 27, the Nationals highlighted in their pregame notes, he had a .269/.307/.398 line, with six doubles, two homers, 16 RBIs, five walks, and 11 runs scored, and since the end of April (April 25th to be specific), he was 15 for 44 (.341) with runners in scoring position.
Meneses, as noted above, went 3 for 3 with RISP against the Padres. He started the night at .239/.296/.317 overall on the year, with three HRs in 66 games and 270 plate appearances, which, considering he hit 13 in 56 games and 240 PAs after making his MLB debut in 2022, is somewhat disappointing, in terms of his power numbers (and overall offensive game — he put up a .324/.367/.563 line as a 30-year-old rookie in ‘22, and a .275/.321/.401 line with another 13 homers in 154 games and 657 PAs last season). Yet, Meneses’ manager, Davey Martinez, stated on Sunday night that he is pleased with what he is seeing in his recent at-bats after Meneses had scored the game-winning run in a 2-1 victory over the Rockies in Colorado. That characterizes him. I’m not too worried about his strength. Martinez stated, “All I want him to do is realize that he’s the one who drives in runs.”
He is our go-to guy for driving in runs, so that was a huge win for us. He managed to stay in the middle, hit a strong base hit, and drive in the game-winning run.
Meneses went 3 for 5 with 2 Ks and 3 RBIs to close off the first game in San Diego.
