Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats drop finale to Mariners, 9-5, settle for 2 of 3 in series…

Notes and quotes on the Nationals’ series win in the three-game set against the Mariners…

WILL CORBIN BOUNCE BACK?:

All things considered, Patrick Corbin was on a nice run before he went up against the Twins last week in the nation’s capital. Corbin, 34, put up a 3.46 ERA, a 3.70 FIP, and not-so-great .294/.354/.480 line against in a five-start stretch between April 23rd and May 15th, but then he struggled with his command and got knocked around by Minnesota, giving up a total of eight runs on nine hits (three home runs), and three walks.

The three home runs were one more than he’d allowed over his previous eight starts and 44 innings pitched.

“Missed location,” manager Davey Martinez said after the six-inning, 106-pitch outing for his starter.

“He tried to go in on all three of those home runs,” Martinez explained, “… and left the ball out over the plate. His location was just bad today. So, but he’s pitching well, and for what it’s worth he gave us six innings and kind of saved our bullpen for tomorrow.”

“Sometimes those days just happen. He’s been really good and keeping us in games, today it just didn’t happen.”

“Hopefully he puts this one behind him and gets ready in five days and gets ready to go again.”

“Before the game located everything pretty well,” Corbin said when he spoke after the start, noting having runners on (via single on the second home run, and walk on the third) added to the damage.

“Just a couple of mistakes there that those guys had good swings on, and a couple walks there, a couple guys got on base, the swinging bunt there, and then another homer.

“So just sometimes those solo homers … I mean, three of those make it 3-0 instead of 6-0. It’s a big difference to it.”

“So just not around the plate as much today,” he added. “And the location on some of those fastballs weren’t there.”

“He struggled yesterday with his location,” GM Mike Rizzo told Audacy’s The Sports Junkies on 106.7 the FAN the next morning. “He had too much of the plate and they were on him all night, but before that four out his five starts had been very effective for us. Beat the Red Sox, pitched well against the White Sox, and Toronto, and the Dodgers, so you just got to get back on it, and five days later you got to take the ball and try to win us another game.”

Corbin’s manager talked before the game on Sunday about how the left-hander responds to the sort of rough outing he had last time out.

“It’s been hit or miss,” Martinez said. “But for the most part regardless of his last start, before that he’s pitched well. He’s pitched well enough if we score runs he could come out with a W. The White Sox he pitched well, so I’m hoping that he comes out today and pitches like that and keeps us in the game.

“As we all know, he’s a veteran guy, he understands, he doesn’t dwell on the past, he’s ready to go today, he did his due diligence and he’s ready to compete today.”

Corbin had a chance to help the Nationals sweep a series on Sunday, taking on the Seattle Mariners in the finale of a three-game set in the nation’s capital, and he gave up one run in the second, when a leadoff walk, an error by Nick Senzel on a playable one-out ground ball to third which could have been good for an inning-ending double play, and a groundout to second brought a run in, 1-0 Mariners.

In the fourth, Julio Rodriguez hit a first-pitch sinker up and in out to left-center for a 423 ft. leadoff home run, 2-0, then a walk and two-run home run followed in an eight-pitch battle with Ty France which ended when the M’s first baseman hit a center-cut cutter 392 feet to left field to put the visitors up 5-1.

“Just a long at-bat there, and that was the one mistake out of the eight pitches,” Corbin said of the second home run of the game for Seattle (and the fifth in two starts for the Nationals’ starter), as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman after the game.

“[France] fouled off some tough pitches,” he explained, “… laid off a slider and then got one (over) the middle.”

Corbin retired nine of ten batters to hold it there through six, and the home team rallied to take the lead with a sac fly by Jessie Winker and three-run home run by CJ Abrams putting the Nationals up 5-4, but the Mariners rallied to tie it at 5-5 on an RBI single by Rodriguez and they took the lead on am RBI single by France, 6-5, before Seattle added three runs in the ninth in a 9-5 win.

“We put some good at-bats together late in the game, to come back and to go ahead, just couldn’t finish today,” Martinez said after settling for 2 of 3 in the series.

“We just fell a little short,” he added, “… but I love — these last three days we played really well, so let’s continue to do that. We got a tough opponent coming up tomorrow, but let’s keep playing with that high energy, and resilience, and we’ll win some games.”

MARTINEZ ON ABRAMS:

CJ Abrams’ home run on Sunday was his first since April 29th, a 22-game stretch, in which he struggled at the plate (.226/.256/.481). His rough stretch followed a .297/.377/.634 start to the season, over which he hit seven homers. To see him finally get hold of one made his manager (and his teammates) happy.

“Obviously we all were elated,” after Abrams hit the go-ahead home run, “… but he was very excited. And it’s a good moment for him. Hopefully this will get him going a little bit. It’s not like he’s swinging bad, he’s just not getting the pitches that he should to hit, and he’s got to learn how to take his walks. That’s the biggest thing for him right now. Be ready to hit, but if they’re going to not throw you fastballs, or not throw you anything close to hit, then he’s got to get on base. And once he gets on base, he creates havoc.

“But he’s learning, he’s playing well. It was a big moment for all of us. What I love about it is he’s not taking his at-bats to the field. He’s playing really good defense, he really is.”

GRAY TAKES BIG STEP:

Josiah Gray made just two starts early this season before he landed on the IL with a right elbow/forearm flexor strain on April 10th. The diagnosis came after two less-than-stellar starts for Gray, who gave up 15 hits, five walks, and 13 earned runs in 8 ¹⁄₃ innings pitched, with seven of the hits, three of the walks, and six of the runs coming in 4 ¹⁄₃ IP in the start before he got an MRI on the elbow.

“He had some tenderness in his elbow,” GM Mike Rizzo explained after the announcement on Gray going on the IL. “I think you could see it the start before, he didn’t look himself, in my opinion. He was pushing the baseball, his [velocity] was down a tick, but didn’t feel anything. So good for him, throwing his next bullpen and saying something. We got him checked out.”

“It’s sort of a dull linger on the muscle, on the pronator flexor mass muscle,” Gray said, as quoted by MLB.com’s Jessica Camerato.

“[It’s] sort of a common thing for pitchers. The training staff is going to take care of it and take care of me.”

Fifty-one days later, Gray took the mound on Saturday over the weekend, and threw a live BP session in Nationals Park, facing teammates Nasim Nuñez and Riley Adams.

How did it go?

Photo by Randy Litzinger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

“Not bad,” manager Davey Martinez told reporters on Saturday afternoon. “It was actually good. His fastball was good. Changeup was good. Still a little bit around his breaking ball, but that’s to come. But overall he threw well. He threw 23 pitches from the mound, and he threw 27 in a bullpen, so 50 pitches is a good spot for him now.”

“Definitely put a smile on my face,” Gray said, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman after facing live hitting following weeks of throwing off the mound in bullpen sessions.

“Being able to get some pep back in my step and know that I’m able to go out there and face hitters. That’s what I love to do. That’s what I like: To just go out there and compete. So just a really, really important day, and I’m definitely going to enjoy this one.”

Gray mixed things up in the live BP, throwing a number of his pitches in the abbreviated session.

“He threw a cutter,” Martinez said. “He threw his sweeper a couple times. He threw a slider, and I thought his slider was not bad. The sweeper was a little bit — I think he was trying to manipulate it a little bit. So we got to get him to understand that you can’t use your body to throw it. You got to still use you arm, just like he throws his fastball. But overall good. We’ll see how he feels tomorrow, but it’s a good start.”

It took a while, and a lot of bullpens, before the Nationals took the next step with the starter, so why did they wait so long?

“We really want to try to keep this as more of a prevention thing. We don’t want him getting hurt again,” Martinez explained.

“So we wanted to make sure we took our time, that he was in his legs, that everything was sound. And then we can build up and go from there.

“I talked to [Pitching Coach Jim] Hickey afterwards, and mechanically he looked really good, so we’re definitely headed in the right direction.”

The next step for Gray?

“Five days, he’ll come back in five days, I would say he’ll get two ups on the mound, then we’ll do another five days,” Martinez said, “that comes out well … now we’ll start building him up and keeping him on a five-day rotation.”