Washington Nationals news & notes: Jesse Winker with big HR; Patrick Corbin holds D-backs to 1 ER in 3-1 win…

Notes and quotes on the Nationals’ 3-1 win over the D-backs in D.C.

CORBIN VS AZ:

Pitching on extra rest last week, Patrick Corbin put together one of his stronger outings this season, holding the Detroit Tigers to a run on four hits and two walks in 5 1⁄3 IP.

He threw 94 pitches, 58 for strikes, striking out four, with just eight swinging strikes, but a total of 15 called strikes, eight on his sinker and five on his slider (with one each on his four-seam fastball and his changeup).

The one run he allowed came on a soft fly that fell into left, after a bunt single and an infield hit put two on in the third.

Corbin ended up pitching into the sixth in the 94-pitch effort.

“I got into some bad counts, missed a couple early,” Corbin said after the start, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.

“But I was able to throw some offspeed in the zone, pitch on the corners, keep them off-balance a little bit. Just a strange inning where they scored, some weak contact that they found some holes.”

“He was really good,” manager Davey Martinez told reporters, noting that the nine runs total scored in Corbin’s previous six starts were at least in part behind his 0-4 record in this outings.

“We’ve got to score some runs for him,” Martinez said. “He’s kept us in the ballgame, we’re just not scoring runs for him, but I thought he threw the ball well. He had a couple of high-leverage situations, the pitch count was up, but he gave us everything he had.

“And I can say that about him since I’ve known him, he goes out there and competes, and I love it.”

Following up on the strong outing, Corbin took on the Arizona Diamondbacks Wednesday in the nation’s capital, giving up just one run again, on a bases-loaded walk in the fourth, when the southpaw gave up back-to-back singles and a base-loading free pass to start the inning.

Corbin got out No. 1 on a play at the plate, with Nasim Nuñez, filling in for a late-scratch CJ Abrams, leaping for a high liner which went off his glove, and recovering in time to throw a laser home to cut down the runner are the plate. Corbin walked the next batter though, 1-0, before recording the final two outs.

BONUS QUOTE:

Davey Martinez’s on watching Nasim Nuñez’s play: “I’m thinking: The only kid that can make that play is him. He’s got a cannon. And to have the game awareness that he had to make that play was awesome.”

Where were we…

A 1-2-3 fifth ended his outing after 90 pitches, 53 strikes, three hits, three walks, seven Ks, 11 swinging Ks (six on his slider), and 16 called strikes (nine on his fastball).

“Other than that little hiccup where he walked a couple guys, he was around the zone, but his slider was really good today,” Davey Martinez told reporters after what ended up a 3-1 win for the Nationals. “He kept us the ballgame for five innings, he had 90 pitches, but he threw well, and it was hot.”

Corbin pointed to his work (and the work his defense did) to limit the D-backs to one run in the fourth as a key to the game.

“With the bases loaded, to give up just one there was huge,” he explained, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.

“That could’ve changed the momentum of the game and maybe put it out of reach. I put myself in that situation. To limit it to one there was huge.”

It was still 1-0 D-backs after 5 ¹⁄₂ innings, but a two-out walk to Lane Thomas and a two-run home run by Jesse Winker off Arizona’s starter Brandon Pfaadt, put the home team ahead.

Derek Law tossed two scoreless. Hunter Harvey worked around a hit in the eighth, after a single by Ildemaro Vargas drove in an insurance run in the seventh, and Kyle Finnegan, in the ninth, locked down the win.

“It’s awesome, it was good,” Martinez said of the win. “That’s why we play for 27 outs. You could be down one second and then next thing you know you’re up by a run, and then our pitching did really well today. Patrick kept us in the ballgame and the bullpen came in and shut the door down. It was a good game. And like I said, these guys are tough. They’ve got good pitching.

“Today, Winker stepped up with the home run, and then our guys shut the door down.”

Winker, the Nationals highlighted in their post game notes, has now, “… reached base safely in 13 of his last 14 games, over which he’s hitting .429 (18-for-42) with a home run, eight RBI, eight runs scored and seven multi-hit efforts.”

“He’s staying behind the baseball better, being more selective, he’s swinging at pitches in the zone,” Martinez said when asked about Winker’s recent run. “He’s always been a good hitter, he had a stretch of injuries, but I love the way he swings the bat.”

ABRAMS ROLLIN— SCRATCHED:

With the first of his two hits on Tuesday night, CJ Abrams extended an 11-game hit streak, over which the 23-year-old shortstop was 15 for 44 (.341 AVG), with five doubles, a triple, two home runs, 10 RBIs, four walks, two stolen bases, and eight runs scored in that stretch.

Abrams had hits in 11 of 12 games in June after Tuesday night’s game, following a rough May (.205/.216/.304) in which he went hitless in 12 of 27 games.

Abrams’ manager Davey Martinez talked after Tuesday’s night’s 5-0 loss, in which Abrams connected for two of the Nats’ four hits overall, about what’s going right for Abrams right now.

“He’s just being a little more patient. He’s trying to get the ball in the zone, so he’s doing a lot better job,” Martinez said. “We talked a lot about him just not going out there and just swinging at the first pitch all the time. Trying to see some pitches, trying to work some counts, he’s starting to see the ball in the zone a lot better, and he’s making good contact, so, he’s going to hit. And I tell him, ‘When you stay in the middle of the field, you’re really good,’ so he’s done a lot better.”

Photo by Jess Rapfogel/Getty Images

Abrams was originally pencilled in as the shortstop for the second of three with the D-Backs in D.C. on Wednesday, but he was scratched before the game, but after Davey Martinez had his pregame meeting with reporters, so we didn’t learn what was behind the late scratch ‘til after the 3-1 win.

“CJ has got a — his left hand or wrist, he’s getting an MRI right now, we don’t know what’s going on with it, so I’ll know more tomorrow,” Martinez explained.

The skipper said Abrams, “… really doesn’t know how it happened, so we wanted to make sure there is nothing going on, so he’s getting an MRI.”

Martinez said he didn’t have any more details to share, saying simply that Abrams’ wrist, “Just felt weird.”