Patrick Corbin throws complete game shutout vs Marlins in Nationals’ 5-0 win

Patrick Corbin needed just 74 pitches to get through six scoreless against the Miami Marlins in Saturday afternoon’s game in the nation’s capital, working around one-out singles in each of the first two frames with inning-ending double plays both times.

Corbin retired 13 of 14 Marlins’ hitters after the one-out single in the second, as Washington took a 5-0 lead with a five-run fourth, and he returned to the mound in Nationals Park in the top of the seventh inning and retired the side in order in a 15-pitch frame which left him at 89 pitches overall with 16 of the last 17 batters set down.

Harold Ramirez doubled to start the Marlins’ eighth, and Martin Prado walked in the next at bat, but a 6-4-3 DP and a swinging K got Corbin through eight scoreless on 103 pitches.

Corbin returned to the mound in the ninth and retired the side in order in a 13-pitch frame.

It was the fifth complete game and the second complete game shutout of Corbin’s career.

Patrick Corbin’s Line: 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 Ks, 116 P, 70 S, 12/4 GO/FO.

Of the 53 two-seamers he threw on the day, 14 of them were called strikes, and Corbin got three called strikes with his cutter and four with his slider, and he got two swinging strikes with his two-seam fastball and six with the slider, inducing 12 ground ball outs from the 29 batters he faced.

Was there any discussion about sending him back out for the ninth when he was up to 103 pitches?

“No,” manager Davey Martinez said.

“Because he wanted the ball. He was very adamant and said he felt good. He had an extra day. We talked and I told him, ‘You’ve got 115 pitches.’ [At] 116, he gave me that look. But he felt good and he looked great. He wasn’t laboring. He didn’t go through any high-leverage innings. I told him, I said, ‘You go out there, get the first two guys out and we’ll go from there.’”

“Just from start to finish felt great all night,” Corbin told MASN’s Carol Maloney when he spoke on the field after the win.

“The fans were great there in the ninth to cheer me on through it, that was great. Yan [Gomes] did a great job, the defense behind me was amazing.

“I don’t know if I made the best pitches today, but the defense behind me played a hell of a game, so just excited to finish this and let’s get them tomorrow.”

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“You try to have every start like, that but it doesn’t always work out,” he added, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman, when he spoke in the clubhouse.

“Just made some good pitches over the course of the game. Defense was excellent tonight.

“And Yan laid down the right pitches. It just felt like we were on [the same] page the whole day.”

How important was it for the Nationals as a team, and for their beleaguered relief corps in particular, to get a complete game out of Corbin?

“Great individual performance,” Martinez said. “He picked us up. Well-needed rest for our bullpen for sure. So you know what, it’s a great win, let’s feed off of that again and come back tomorrow and do it again.”