Washington Nationals news & notes: Patrick Corbin struggles late in start; Nats drop 6-2 decision to Mets…

Notes and quotes from the Nationals and Mets’ second game in Citi Field…

Patrick Corbin threw a 90.5 MPH 1-0 sinker right down the middle to Brandon Nimmo in the bottom of the first inning last night, and the New York Mets’ outfielder hit it out, 440 feet to right field in Citi Field, at 110.5 MPH off the bat.

It was the only run Corbin allowed in five innings in the second of three for the Nationals in Flushing, Queens, but things went pear-shaped for the lefty in the bottom of the sixth.

J.D. Martinez singled to left on a first-pitch fastball up and in, Pete Alonso hit a 1-2 sinker at the top of the zone out to right field, and Mark Vientos doubled on an 0-2 pitch up, driving in a run and tying things up at 2-2. That was it for Corbin.

Derek Law took over, with two on and no one out, and walked the first batter he faced and then gave up a two-run single which put the Mets on top, 4-2, and 5-2 before he got out of the inning in what ended up a 6-2 loss.

Corbin gave up eight hits, a walk, and four earned runs, striking out five in a 73-pitch, 50-strike start, with eight swinging and 13 called strikes on the night.

“Corbin was really good,” manager Davey Martinez told reporters in his post game presser in the Mets’ home.

“He had 65 pitches going into that [sixth] inning. And then he got up on everything. When he kept the ball down, he was really good. He throws the ball up and he got hit.”

“I thought they had some good at-bats there,” Corbin said of the Mets’ sixth inning rally.

“Made some pitches. They had some good swings there. We got into a little trouble there, but just maybe try to look back, see kind of what we could have did a little different. But I felt pretty good overall. I think mixing up — got some strikes, some easy outs on some breaking balls away, and thought we did a good job with [catcher] Keibert [Ruiz] there, mixing it up, keeping them off-balance, and I thought really other than the Nimmo homer there — [which] just was middle-middle — I thought the rest of it was fairly good. But maybe different pitches in those situations there in that sixth, but we’ll see.”

Martinez too said he was going to have to go back and look more closely at Corbin’s start to see what went wrong.

“I got to go back and look, but everything was up,” he said. “I don’t know if he was trying to do it on purpose, but he got the ball up and when he gets the ball up he gets hit.”

Corbin said he was trying to go up at times, according to scouting reports.

“Alonso, everyone kind of knows where you’re trying to throw him, but kind of where I was trying to go, maybe a little more out over the plate then I’d like,” he said.

“Sometimes you’re trying to go up, and in that case I was, just, like I said, they had good swings on those pitches, and wasn’t able to get an out.”

Corbin’s tough inning wasn’t the only issue in the second straight loss to the Mets.

“The thing is … five hits, two runs. That’s the big thing,” Martinez said, pointing to the lack of offense for his club. “We got to hit. We got to score some runs. Yesterday, we scored some runs late. Today, we got on [Mets’ starter Luis] Severino a little bit there and then the at-bats went away again. So we gotta put the pressure on the other team.

“I said it before: When the bullpen comes in and they’re scratching and clawing to save the games like that, our offense got to pick them up. They got to pick them up.”