Washington Nationals drop rain-shortened 7-0 decision to Baltimore Orioles

Corbin in OPACY:

“Patrick today didn’t deserve that,” manager Davey Martinez said after the Nationals’ starter gave up eight hits and nine runs, two earned, in 3 ¹⁄₃ IP against the Phillies the last time out for the 32-year-old lefty before tonight.

“I think Patrick deserves a little bit better than that,” he reiterated, pointing to errors in the third, which opened the floodgates in a seven-run inning, and the Phils added to the lead with two more in the top of the fourth before Corbin’s outing ended with the southpaw up to 84 pitches.

“He gave up seven unearned runs, [46] pitches later. He could have been out of the [third] inning with like 11-12 pitches.”

It was 11. Then an E:4, two-run home run, a bunch of hits, a walk, another error, and Corbin, as he put it, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman, “kind of was just shot after that.”

Three of the first four hitters he faced tonight reached base, with back-to-back singles by Austin Hays and Trey Mancini to start the bottom of the first, and Hays scored on a 1-out, RBI double to right field by Ryan Mountcastle, who battled the Nats’ lefty for nine pitches before bouncing one off the right field wall to drive Hays in, 1-0.

Austin Hays led the Orioles’ third off with a home run to left on an 0-2 slider over the middle of the plate in the bottom of the inning, 2-0. No. 10 for Hays in 2022.

One out later, it was a 3-0 sinker to Anthony Santander which went out, 414 feet out, to left-center this time, for the second HR of the inning for the O’s and a 3-0 lead.

Hays tripled off the right field wall on a first-pitch sinker with two out in the fourth, but he was stranded at the end of a 10-pitch frame which ended Corbin’s outing...

Patrick Corbin’s Line: 4.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 Ks, 2 HRs, 83 P, 63 S, 2/3 GO/FO.

Wells vs Washington:

Tyler Wells, 27, took the mound tonight in OPACY with a four-start unbeaten streak going, in which he’d put up a 2.45 ERA, a 4.72 FIP, six walks, 11 Ks, and a .180/.238/.359 line against in 22 IP, and the right-hander had a 3.62 ERA, a 4.32 FIP, and a .234/.274/.396 line against in 13 starts and 59 ²⁄₃ IP overall on the year in his second year with the O’s, after he was selected from the Minnesota Twins (who’d drafted him in 15th Round in the 2016 Draft) in the Rule 5 Draft in December of 2020.

Wells tossed two scoreless to start tonight’s game, but he ran into trouble in the top of the third, with a one-out single by César Hernández and then back-to-back, two-out walks to Josh Bell and Nelson Cruz loading the bases in front of Luis García, who K’d looking at a 1-2 slider from the O’s starter for out No. 3 of a 23-pitch frame which left him at 55 pitches total in three scoreless.

A 16-pitch fourth, in which he worked around a one-out single by Yadiel Hernández, and 24-pitch fifth in which he stranded Juan Soto after a one-out walk, left Wells at 95 pitches over five scoreless innings, with the Orioles up 3-0.

Tyler Wells’s Line: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 4 Ks, 95 P, 55 S, 5/4 GO/FO.

Bullpen Action > Delay > Ballgame:

Erasmo Ramírez was warming to take over for Patrick Corbin in the bottom of the fifth when the skies over OPACY opened up and the game went into a rain delay and was eventually ... restarted at 9:45 PM, and Ramírez did come back out to the mound, and he retired the side in order to keep it a 3-0 game.

Steve Cishek got the bottom of the sixth inning, and the side-winder gave up a leadoff single by Tyler Nevin, a one-out walk to Jorge Mateo, two-run double by Austin Hays (who hit for the cycle in four at-bats with the two-base hit), 5-0.

And a two-run home run by Trey Mancini, 7-0 Orioles...

Nationals now 25-47