Patrick Corbin dominant as Nationals stop four-game slide with 6-0 win over Dodgers

Patrick Corbin started the eighth outing of the first year of the 6-year/$140M deal he signed with the Washington Nationals this winter with a 3-0 lead and three scoreless and hitless innings of work on the mound in Dodger Stadium, striking out six of the first 11 batters sent to the plate by the Los Angeles Dodgers last night.

The Dodgers loaded the bases in the fourth inning, however, with a leadoff walk, an infield single on a hard-hit grounder to third Anthony Rendon couldn’t handle, and a second walk from the Nationals’ lefty, who then dialed up an inning-ending 5-4-3 DP to keep his shutout bid alive through four.

Corbin worked around a HBP in a scoreless fifth and a single in a scoreless sixth which left him at 92 pitches total on the night, and he hit for himself in the top of the seventh inning, returned to the mound, and worked around a one-out single, getting another 5-4-3 DP to end a 15-pitch frame at 107 pitches overall.

Patrick Corbin’s Line: 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 8 Ks, 107 P, 65 S, 5/5 GO/FO.

Corbin’s teammates added two runs in the eighth and another in the ninth in what ended up a 6-0 win that snapped a four-game losing streak for the Nationals and a 10-game win streak at home for the Dodgers.

“What a performance by Patrick,” Nats’ skipper Davey Martinez said after the win. “I mean, he dealt tonight. It was good to see, but typical, I mean, he’s been pitching really well.”

Asked what Corbin is doing when things go well, Martinez said a lot of the success is tied to the left-hander pounding hitters inside.

“He attacks the strike zone and he pitches in,” the manager explained. “He threw a lot of balls in today, which was really good, and he kept them off-balance.”

“I like to throw to both sides of the plate, something I’ve always done, so definitely do it to righties quite a bit,” Corbin told reporters, as quoted by MASN’s Byron Kerr after the win.

“Been mixing my slider in there too just to show them something different. Me and [catcher] Yan [Gomes] today, we were in a great rhythm there, just seemed like everything called I was thinking the same thing. So, it’s always fun to go out there make quality pitches and see results.”

Corbin generated 12 swinging strikes and four called strikes with the 44 sliders he threw to the Dodgers, and 20 swings and misses and 16 called strikes overall.

Nats’ GM Mike Rizzo talks state of the Nationals with the Junkies:

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

LINK: “We’ve played bad baseball, just in general.” - Mike Rizzo

Corbin’s slider, Martinez said, was “really nasty.”

“Because it looks like a fastball, and the break is so late it looks like it’s just a fastball coming in.”

“Slider was on all day,” Corbin added. “I felt it today and was able to get ahead of guys, and a couple big double plays that they turned behind me to get me out of a couple jams. But overall, felt great.”

The start they got from Corbin, Martinez said, was what the Nationals expected when they signed the left-hander this winter.

“Absolutely, I mean like I said, since the day we got him he’s been all in. He’s been a tremendous guy, a tremendous leader, and a good athlete. You can’t ask for more than what he’s been doing.”