Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats lose 4-1; improvement for Patrick Corbin; James Wood gets on…

Notes and quotes on the Nationals’ series opening loss to the Giants…

CORBIN ERA NEARS END:

Patrick Corbin gave up 13 hits and 11 runs (10 of them earned) over three innings in his July 30th start against D-Backs on the road in Arizona, throwing 67 pitches to 22 batters before he was lifted from what ended up a 17-0 loss.

“Just location. Just location,” Nationals’ manager Davey Martinez told reporters in assessing the disastrous outing for Corbin.

“They swung really early in counts. Just a lot of missed location.”

“You got to make pitches. When he made pitches he was able to get outs, just a lot of balls in the middle.”

“Tough one tonight,” the Nats’ left-handed starter acknowledged after the outing, which left him with a 5.88 ERA, a 4.43 FIP, and .304/.354/.498 line against in 22 starts and 121 IP on the year.

“I’ve just got to move on from it. I feel like I’ve been throwing well.

“Today was just the total opposite.”

“He’s thrown the ball really, really well,” his manager said. “It’s just one of those days. Some days you got to tip your hat to those guys. They swung the bats really well, they were on him, he needs to put this one behind him and come back and don’t let this affect the way he’s been pitching as of late, because he’s been throwing the ball really, really well.”

Two pitches into his 23rd start of the year, Corbin and the Nationals trailed 1-0, after a red-hot Tyler Fitzgerald (who’d hit 10 of 11 home runs on the year in his previous 16 games) hit a sinker low in the zone 416 ft to left for No. 12 this season, taking the Nats’ starter deep early in what ended up a 4-1 loss for the home team.

In the third, Corbin got two outs after a leadoff double, and got up 0-2 on the next batter, Michael Conforto, then walked him, giving Matt Chapman a shot he cashed in on a slider, knee-high just inside, which the Giants’ third baseman hit 409 ft. to left for a three-run HR and a 4-0 lead.

“His one mistake,” Martinez said after the game, “… he walked Conforto, he had him 0-2, and he faces [Chapman] he gives up the home run. But that was it.

“Other than that he was good the rest of the way. He pounded the strike zone, he kept the ball down, he limited the damage, so just that one mistake got us.”

Corbin went six, walking one, striking out six, with seven hits and the four earned runs. He picked up 11 swinging strikes, eight on his slider, and 19 called strikes (9 on his slider, 6 on his slider, and 4 on his cutter).

“I think he was good,” Nats’ catcher Keibert Ruiz told reporters after the loss. “He gave us six innings, and he gave us a chance to win the ballgame, and he was really good. Getting early outs, a lot of early contact.”

“First batter of the game, if that happens, there’s a lot of game left,” Corbin said, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman. “Sometimes it takes you a pitch or two to locate your fastball. It’s just unfortunate that he hit that one out of the ballpark.”

Photo by Jess Rapfogel/Getty Images

It was a vast improvement over his outing in the D-backs’ home.

“Just he kept the ball down. For the most part he kept the ball down,” Martinez explained when asked about adjustments Corbin made start-to-start. “When he’s down, he’s been throwing the ball really well. He didn’t throw that many changeups today, he felt like he didn’t really need it.

“But his slider was good, his fastball was good, but he’s got to keep the ball down. The at-bat was the Conforto at-bat, 0-2 to 4-2 really hurt him.”

WOOD’S TIME UP HERE:

James Wood battled for eight pitches, and reached out for and pulled a 3-2 changeup outside to right field for a single the first time up on Sunday afternoon.

With the first of his two hits in the series finale with the Brewers in Nationals Park, the 21-year-old rookie extended a nine-game on-base streak.

Wood hit a fly to center field for an out the second time up against right-handed starter Tobias Myers, then, with the bases loaded and side-winding southpaw Hoby Milner on the mound in the sixth, he hit an 0-1 sinker the other way, down the line in left, where Jackson Chourio made an ill-advised and unsuccessful try at a diving catch which allowed Wood to speed around the bases as three runners scored to make it 4-1 Nats in what ended up a 4-3 win.

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Wood went 2 for 4 overall, leaving him 12 for 33 (.364 AVG) with two doubles, two triples, eight RBIs, seven walks, a stolen base, and six runs scored in that stretch.

“That was a big few runs there, it really was,” manager Davey Martinez said, referring to Wood’s three-run triple.

“He’s very patient, and very calm,” Martinez said of Wood’s approach at the plate early in his big league career. “He stays on the ball really well. He doesn’t try to do a whole lot, but he’s got a good swing, and he tries to get the ball in the strike zone, and he did it again today. That was a big moment, and he came through, the kid’s going to be okay, he really is. I love the way he’s approaching the baseball right now.”

Wood had a .257/.342/.376 line on the year after his two-hit game, with three doubles, two triples, two home runs. 13 walks, and 41 Ks in 29 games and 123 PAs in the majors this year.

That he is as patient and calm as he is at the plate at this point in his development is a big positive in his manager’s mind.

“I love it. I love it,” Martinez stressed.

“He’s eager to learn. He stays in the moment, he understands what he wants to do every at-bat, and you can see that the at-bats are getting better and better. He’s taking his walks, he’s staying on some changeups, he’s hitting the ball to all fields, he’s doing well.”

And when he says Wood is eager to learn, how does that look on a daily basis, as he adjust the major league game.

“He works and wants to learn, he wants to learn the pitchers,” Martinez explained.

“He studies the pitchers every day with the hitting coaches. He’s getting it. He’s getting it. I said, ‘Look, your first time through, you’ve got to learn what the league is going to do to you,’ but my big thing with him is, ‘Hey, just focus on the moment, stay in the moment, don’t get ahead of yourself, you’re going to be just fine and he’s done well.”

Wood extended his on-base streak to 10 games, going 1 for 3 with a walk in the 4-1 loss.

He’s now, “… hitting .361 (13-for-36) with two doubles, two triples, nine RBI[s], eight walks, a stolen base, and six runs scored,” in the last 10 games.