Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats shut out by Twins, 10-0; Rubber match in D.C. today…

Notes and quotes on the Nationals’ shutout loss to the Twins in the nation’s capital…

CORBIN KEEPS MISSING LOCATION:

Davey Martinez summed up Patrick Corbin’s struggles on Tuesday night succinctly when he spoke with reporters following a 10-0 drubbing the hands/bats of the Minnesota Twins, who evened things up in their three-game series in Washington, D.C.’s Nationals Park.

Corbin, who was actually on a nice run in the month of May, with a 3.24 ERA, a 3.21 FIP, and a .297/.343/.438 line against before Tuesday’s start, giving up six runs in three starts and 16 ²⁄₃ IP, after he finished the first month-plus of the 2024 campaign with a 6.82 ERA, 4.63 FIP, and a .353/.405/.564 line against in six starts and 31 ²⁄₃ IP.

The 34-year-old gave up two home runs in his first outing of the season, but he’d given up just two in 44 innings in his previous eight starts before taking on the Twins.

Corbin gave up nine hits, three of them home runs, and eight runs total in a six-inning start, walking three, and striking out three.

The common factor in the home runs by the Twins? (By Byron Buxton in the second, Jose Miranda in the third, and Buxton again in the fifth).

“Missed location,” Martinez said. “He tried to go in on all three of those home runs, and left the ball out over the plate. His location was just bad today.

“But he’s pitching well, and for what it’s worth he gave us six innings and kind of saved our bullpen for tomorrow.”

But the outing, in which he threw 106 pitches, 60 for strikes, was not a good one for Corbin.

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

A night after the club scored 13 runs on the Twins, the offense just didn’t happen either.

Twins’ starter Joe Ryan tossed seven scoreless innings against the Nationals, giving up just three hits and two walks, while striking out six, and collecting 10 swinging strikes, eight of them on his fastball, and 14 called strikes, 13 of them with his heater.

The difference for his offense night-to-night in the first two games of the series?

“Obviously the pitcher,” Martinez said. “We fell behind, but the pitcher, Ryan, he kept us off-balance, but his fastball played really well tonight.

“He located it, it was up in the zone, we couldn’t get on top, so he threw the ball well.”

“His stuff was good. His stuff was really good. So we got a chance to come back tomorrow and win a series, so let’s go back and go 1-0 tomorrow and win a series.”

DID RUIZ RETURN TOO SOON?:

Keibert Ruiz missed 13 games while dealing with a particularly rough bout of influenza. In his time on the IL, he reportedly lost 18-20 lbs. He played just two games on a rehab stint beore returning to the big leagues, and after a 2 for 4 game in the Nationals’ 12-3 win on Monday, he had hits in 3 of 4 games, but still just a .153/.176/.222 line, two doubles, a home run, one walk, and 12 Ks over 20 games and 74 plate appearances since the IL stint.

How, if at all, have his struggles affected his confidence?

“He’s been really, really good, he really has,” manager Davey Martinez said in his pregame press conference on Monday.

“He’s frustrated,” Martinez added, “… because we really thought, and he really thought that he was in a good place before he got sick, and we’ve been really, really trying to stay positive, with him, we really have, because it’s not his fault he got real sick. But he’s been very positive.”

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In hindsight, did the club rush him back? Should they have given him more time to get back up to speed in the minors after the prolonged illness?

“He said he felt really good, and then he hit a little lull,” Martinez explained, “but that’s part of kind of building him up a little bit. So like I said, I’ll continue to monitor him, but he said now he’s at the point where he said now he feels like he gained some weight back, and he feels good enough, and now it’s just going out there and playing baseball.”

Ruiz is working both sides of his game, the manager said, and trying to get back to hitting and improve his catching as he plays most days as the Nationals’ No. 1 backstop.

“He spends a lot of time working on his catching, so hopefully he’s starting to feel better all the way around. We talked to him today about just not trying to do too much, just getting a good swing, swinging at strikes. The biggest thing for me is that he’s chasing a lot. He’s got to get the ball in the zone. When he does that — usually when he does that he strike the ball pretty well. He’s a big part of our lineup and a big part of our young players, so he’s going to be okay.”

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Martinez said he tried to assure Ruiz he believes the catcher is capable of turning it around.

“I told him, ‘This is not the first time — and granted, you’ve been sick, but this is not the first time you’ve started slow neither. You’ve done it and all of a sudden you’ve picked it up and you were — Wow! So let’s just focus on today, and focus on what you need to do to get ready to catch, and each at-bat try to get to that next pitch. But he was good. I saw him today, he was laughing and smiling amongst his players in the cage, so we just got to keep him positive.”