Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats beat Yankees … behind six scoreless from Patrick Corbin

Notes and quotes from last night’s win over the Yankees in Nationals Park…

CORBIN ROLLING?:

Patrick Corbin held the Phillies to two runs on seven hits in 4 ¹⁄₃ innings on the mound in Citizens Bank Park, then the lefty followed up on that start with a six-inning outing against the Rockies in the nation’s capital in which he gave up one run on four hits, earning his 100th win in the majors in that turn in the rotation.

“His cutter was good,” Davey Martinez told reporters after the win over Colorado. “Used both sides of the plate, but his cutter was really good today. His slider was effective, but for the most part he kept the ball down. His two-seamer was really good down, so he got a lot of early swings and some effective strikeouts just using his fastball.”

Corbin threw 95 pitches total in six, (after throwing 96 in 4 ¹⁄₃ in the previous start), striking out eight of 22 batters he faced, and picking up a total of 12 swinging and 14 called strikes, spread out fairly evenly between his slider, sinker, and cutter.

“You try to go out every fifth day, give it your best, and hope the team wins,” the 35-year-old southpaw said of earning win No. 100, “… and whether you get a win in the column or not, those things happen.”

Going up against the New York Yankees in Nationals Park last night, Corbin continued his run of recent success, tossing six scoreless innings in which he gave up just two hits and two walks, earning W No. 101 of his career in a 4-2 win.

Corbin stranded Aaron Judge after a two-out double in the first, a two-out walk in the third, a one-out single by Giancarlo Stanton in the fourth, and a two-out walk to Judge in the top of the sixth, striking out six of 22 batters he faced, with 13 swinging strikes and a total of 19 called strikes (10 on his sinker).

He received two runs of support early, with José Tena singling and Dylan Crews doubling (off of Gerrit Cole for his first hit in the majors) with one out in the bottom of the second, and Tena scored on a Joey Gallo groundout to make it 1-0 Nats early.

Andrés Chaparro took Cole deep to left for a solo home run (his first in the majors) to lead off in the fourth, 2-0, and Tena followed with the second straight home run in the next at-bat, hitting his second in the majors 405 ft. to center for a 3-0 lead, before Crews singled and scored a run in the sixth, 4-0.

“It’s always fun playing in an environment like that,” Corbin said of the environment in D.C. with 34,334 fans filling up the ballpark. “A packed stadium, the fans were great tonight. And you just try to go out there against a good team, keep us in the game, and offense got a couple runs there, we tacked on those two homers there a little bit later, but defense played great behind me, [catcher] Keibert [Ruiz] did a great job behind the plate tonight, but against these guys you just try to keep it out of the middle of the plate. You want to attack them, but at times, I mean the pitch count got a little high early, but you try to work around things like that against an offense that hits a lot of homers.”

In his last three, the Nationals highlighted in their post game notes, Corbin has a 1.65 ERA in 16 ¹⁄₃ IP, over which he’s walked five and struck out 16.

CREWS ROLLING:

In a 16-game stretch before he got called up to make his MLB debut Monday, 22-year-old Nationals’ prospect Dylan Crews, who was ranked No. 4 on Baseball America’s Top 100, went 21 for 68 (.309 AVG), “… with a .385 on-base percentage (5 BB, 4 HBP) and a .529 slugging percentage (2B, 3B, 4 HR),” as the club noted in a press release on the call-up.

“He reached base safely in all 16 games,” they added, “… and [had] hit safely in 13 of the 16.”

GM and President of Baseball Ops Mike Rizzo told MLB Network Radio last week Crews was a polished hitter coming out of college at LSU, who was refining his skills in the minors and working his way up to the majors.

“I think he’s been a better offensive player at the Triple-A level than he was at the Double-A level,” Rizzo said of the two stops Crews made in the minors this season, “… and I think that as he gets to the higher levels, he’ll continue to improve, and he’ll be an impact player offensively, defensively — baserunning, he’s really a well-rounded player that you can build around.”

The recent run at the plate, Nats’ skipper Davey Martinez said before’s Crews’s big league debut, was all about getting his timing right on fastballs.

“Earlier in Spring Training, we saw he was a little late,” the manager explained.

“He made some adjustments. He was really starting to get to the fastballs and staying back a little bit better.

“But from Day 1, I really loved his approach. He’s aggressive and that’s awesome. So one, getting ready to hit the fastball, two is not chasing. We know he’s got a good eye.

“He’ll take his walks, so he’s got to continue to do that.”

Crews put up a combined .270/.342/.451 line, 21 doubles, six triples, and 13 HRs in 100 games and 449 plate appearances in Double- and then Triple-A.

His own take on the hot stretch before he got the call?

“I think — just really controlling the zone,” Crews said. “And I think as the year goes on too, I tend to get a little bit better, just based off of history and in college and even in high school ball, as a year goes on, I tend to get a little bit better.

“So August came around and I was seeing the ball great, and I was just able to put up some good numbers. But just trying to capitalize on it and trying to carry it over here.”

Crews also indirectly agreed with Rizzo’s take on the young outfielder playing up to the level of competition he’s faced on his way up.

“I think so, too, yeah. Going to college, too, playing in the SEC and everything, going to the College World Series, you kind of have to step up your game a little bit and see what you’re made of, and I think it did a pretty good job of that. So we’ll see how it goes here.”

“It was an awesome feeling to go out there for the first time and compete with the guys,” Crews said after he went 0 for 3 with a walk in his first game in the majors on Monday.

Martinez said he thought it would be good to get the first one out of the way and get going.

That first game is always — even the first few games, it’s always ‘get those jitters out,’ you know? Hopefully he gets his first hit today, and then moves on from there.”

On Tuesday, Crews did collect his first hit, doubling off the base of the wall in left on a 2-0 fastball low over the middle of the plate from Yankees’ starter Gerrit Cole.

He singled for his first multi-hit game in the big leagues, stole his first base, and scored his first run as a major leaguer in the sixth, finishing up his second game 2 for 4 with a run.