Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats lose to Padres in extras, 7-6; Joey Meneses with RISP + more…

Notes and quotes from the Nationals’ series-opening loss to the Padres…

CORBINNING:

“It’s more staying out of these 2-3-run innings for him,” Davey Martinez told a reporter who’d asked the manager before last night’s game what to make of the Nationals’ 34-year-old, 12-year vet Patrick Corbin at this point in his career, “… but things spiral for an inning, and then he settles down and he gets some big outs for us.”

Corbin barely avoided one of those spirals in his previous start before facing the San Diego Padres in Monday’s series opener in Petco Park.

Back-to-back singles, a base-loading walk, and a bases-loaded walk led to a run coming in, but Corbin held the Arizona Diamondbacks there last week in the nation’s capital, with just the one run allowed in the fourth inning of a five-inning, 90-pitch outing.

Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images

“With the bases loaded, to give up just one there was huge,” Corbin told reporters, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman after a 3-1 win in which he received no decison.

“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.”

“He’s pitched well his last two outings,” Martinez said before start No. 16 of Corbin’s sixth season in D.C., “… so we’re going to go from there.”

“For him,” to be successful, the manager explained, “it’s about keeping the ball down. He’s working good changeups, good cutter, a good two-seamer.

“When he throws the ball down, he’s really good. When he tries to elevate the ball he gets hit. So we just got to continue to talk to him about keeping the ball down.”

Corbin gave up back-to-back singles on pitches down in the zone in the Padres’ second on Monday night, and one out after the first two batters of the inning reached, with men on first and third, he gave up a bunt single by Ha-Seong Kim which drove in the first of three runs in the inning. Kyle Higashioka hit an 0-1 sinker down but over the middle of plate on a line to right to drive in two more, 3-0.

Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images

After that, however, Corbin retired 16 of the 17 batters he faced, including 13-straight to end his seven-inning, 97-pitch, 59-strike, five-hit outing, in which he struck out five batters, with eight swinging strikes on the night, seven on his slider, and 18 called strikes, 12 on them on his sinker.

“Regardless of what people think of him, seven innings, he’s been pitching really well his last three outings,” Martinez said, as quoted by MASN’s Bobby Blanco, following what ended up an extra-innings loss. “He gave us everything he had. He pitched damn good. So I’m proud of him.”

MENESES WITH RISP:

With one run in the third on an RBI ground-rule double by Joey Meneses, a run in the fifth on an RBI single by Meneses, and an RBI single in the seventh by … [checks notes] … Meneses, the Nationals tied things up at 3-3, and it stayed tied through nine.

Meneses started the night on a nice (sustained) run, with hits in 10 of his last 12 games, and three doubles, a home run, seven RBIs, three walks, and six runs scored over that stretch.

In his previous 27, the Nationals highlighted in their pregame notes, he had a .269/.307/.398 line, with six doubles, two homers, 16 RBIs, five walks, and 11 runs scored, and since the end of April (April 25th to be specific), he was 15 for 44 (.341) with runners in scoring position.

Meneses, as noted above, went 3 for 3 with RISP against the Padres. He started the night at .239/.296/.317 overall on the year, with three HRs in 66 games and 270 plate appearances, which, considering he hit 13 in 56 games and 240 PAs after making his MLB debut in 2022, is somewhat disappointing, in terms of his power numbers (and overall offensive game — he put up a .324/.367/.563 line as a 30-year-old rookie in ‘22, and a .275/.321/.401 line with another 13 homers in 154 games and 657 PAs last season).

His manager, Davey Martinez, however, said on Sunday night he’s liking what he’s seeing in Meneses’s recent at-bats, after he’d driven in the go-ahead run in a 2-1 win over the Rockies in Colorado.

“That’s who he is. I’m not overly-concerned about his power. What I want him to do is just understand that he’s the guy that drives in runs,” Martinez said.

“We rely on him to drive in the runs for us, and that was big for us right there. He stayed in the middle, hit a base hit, and hit it hard, and was able to drive in the winning run.”

Meneses finished the opener in San Diego 3 for 5 with two Ks and the 3 RBIs.

EXTRAS:

With the score tied at 3-3 after nine, the Nationals drove in one with an RBI double off of the bat of their catcher, Keibert Ruiz, who scored one out later, on a 2-run home run to left field by Nick Senzel, 6-3.

Hunter Harvey got the ball in the bottom of the tenth, after Kyle Finnegan pitched in back-to-back games on Saturday and Sunday in Coors Field, but Harvey struggled, giving up a leadoff two-base hit by Donovan Solano and a two-run single by Jackson Merrill, who drove in the free runner as well, 6-5, and a walk to Ha-Seong Kim, sac bunt by Tyler Wade, which moved two runners into scoring position, and, one out later, a base-loading intentional walk to Luis Arraez, set Jackson Profar with an opportunity to win which he cashed in with a walk-off single, 7-6 Padres.

“I’m proud of the boys coming back. This is a tough one,” Davey Martinez said after the series-opening loss.

“It’s a tough one. These guys are not going to let up, either. So we’ve got to come back tomorrow and do it again.”

“It’s definitely hard to swallow,” he added at another point. “But like I said, we’ve got to come back and do it again tomorrow and hopefully we score some more runs.”