Washington Nationals news & notes: Patrick Corbin vs the Tigers; Lane Thomas vs the ump + more…

Notes and quotes from the Nationals’ series finale with the Tigers…

SCORE FOR COR-BIN:

Patrick Corbin, 34, took the mound on Thursday afternoon 13 starts and 71 ²⁄₃ innings into the final year of his six-year/$140M deal with Washington’s Nationals with a 6.15 ERA, 5.23 FIP, 27 walks (3.39 BB/9), 44 Ks (5.53 K/9), 12 HRs allowed (1.51 HR/9), and a .321/.374/.558 line against on the season.

His 14th start was initially pushed back so the struggling starter, (0-4 in his previous five starts with a 6.52 ERA, a 6.84 FIP, and .288/.350/.586 line against in 29 IP in the outings*), could get a mental and physical break.

“A little bit of both,” Nationals’ manager Davey Martinez told reporters on Sunday morning, “…and rightfully so. He’s part of our pitching staff. He’s been pitching quite a bit. He’s a guy that’s been going five, six, seven innings all the time for us. So I wanted to give him a little break.”

“He’s been pitching a lot.”

A fingernail issue for the expected starter in the series finale in Detroit changed the rotation plans again, however, with lefty MacKenzie Gore pushed back to Friday’s series opener with Miami.

“Yeah, we’re going to go with Corbin,” Martinez said on Wednesday.

“MacKenzie Gore, we’re pushing him back a day. He’s got little bit of a nail issue on his throwing hand, so we asked him [and he said] one more day will definitely help, so Corbin is good to go, so we’ll use Corbin tomorrow and push MacKenzie back.”

Corbin, still pitching on extra rest, put together one of his stronger outings this season, with the southpaw holding the Tigers to a run on four hits and two walks in 5 ¹⁄₃ IP, over which he threw 94 pitches, 58 for strikes, striking out four, with just eight swinging strikes, but a total of 15 called strikes, eight on his sinker and five on his slider (with one each on his four-seam fastball and one on his changeup).

After stranding three baserunners in the first two innings, Corbin gave up a bunt single, had a runner reach on a grounder up the middle CJ Abrams dove for (hard) before throwing just a step late to first, and a tweener to left field which fell in between three charging Nationals for a hit which drove in the only run to score with the starter on the mound.

Unfortunately, a recent trend which has seen the Nationals score just seven runs total while going 0-5 in Corbin’s previous five turns in the rotation, continued in their loss to the Tigers, with Ildemaro Vargas’s two sac flies (the club’s 5th and 6th sac flies in the series) accounting for the only two runs the club scored in a 7-2 loss.

“He was really good,” Martinez said after the game. “We’ve got to score some runs for him. He’s kept us in the ballgame, we’re just not scoring runs for him, but I thought he threw the ball well. He had a couple of high-leverage situations, the pitch count was up, but he gave us everything he had. And I can say that about him since I’ve known him, he goes out there and competes, and I love it.”

Corbin retired the side in the fourth, stranded a 1-out HBP in the fifth, and got an out in the sixth before he was done, with the score tied at 1-1, but reliever Derek Law gave up a home run with two out in the inning, 2-1 Tigers, and after the Nationals tied it, three straight one-out hits in the seventh, 3-2, and a sac fly, 4-2, before Robert Garcia allowed an RBI single, a walk, and a two-run double, 7-2.

“Look, we’ve relied on these guys throughout the whole year, and they’ve done really well,” Martinez said after the bullpen blow up ended the longest win streak in years at five.

“It just didn’t happen today. Corbin gave us everything he had there, he had a lot of pitches, we had to get to that bullpen, and like I said, these guys have been really good all year.

“It’s just one game. We won the series. We get to home now and start a fresh one and start another winning streak.”

LANE THOMAS EJECTED:

Lane Thomas didn’t like the 96 MPH, 2-2 fastball Casey Mize got him looking with in the top of the sixth, and he muttered an obscenity after the called strike three, and was ejected by home plate umpire Emil Jimenez, whose quick reaction shocked the outfielder and angered his manager.

Thomas and Davey Martinez (with Jesse Winker in the mix) argued the obscenity was not in any way directed at the umpire, but an expression of frustration within earshot of the ump.

Martinez was not happy with the umpire’s decision to toss his right fielder.

“He dropped an ‘MF’, and the umpire threw him out and he said he looked right at him and said it, and I said, ‘That’s now what we saw,’” Martinez told reporters after the game.

“And he was adamant that Lane said it to him, and he didn’t, and if you know Lane he would never do that. So, I thought that was too quick of an ejection, it really was. So the league will look at it and hopefully they’ll do something about it, but this game is emotional, right, and if he thought he called a bad pitch, you know, you got the right to say something, walk away, but he didn’t say nothing to him, he just thought it was a bad pitch, and just muffled stuff, and he got thrown out, then Lane looked at him. So we’ll see what the league says.”

LIPSCOMB’S ROLE:

With Joey Gallo placed on the 10-Day IL on Wednesday, the Nationals called Trey Lipscomb back up for the third time this year, giving the 23-year-old another opportunity in the majors after he hit .252 with a double, home run, nine RBIs, 11 walks, 10 stolen bases, and 16 runs scored in 33 games in the majors in his first two stints.

“He can play multiple positions, so we can use him in different scenarios,” Nationals’ skipper Davey Martinez explained when asked why Lipscomb was the choice to replace Gallo on the roster.

“I’m going to try to get him out there as much as I can, but knowing he can play third, short, second, first, left field, definitely helps.”

Martinez stressed in Lipscomb’s first two stints he needed to play every day at this point in his development and his versatility defensively makes that easier.

Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images

“I don’t want him to just sit here and just come off the bench,” Martinez reiterated after the latest call-up was official. “So I will find spots to play him. Like I said, we can play him at third base one day, give [third baseman Nick] Senzel a day off, or even DH Senzel, so there will be some opportunities, especially against some of these left-handed pitchers we got coming up where we can get him in the game.”

As for what the manager wants to see from Lipscomb this time around?

“He’s a young kid that we want him to work on a lot of different things, but it’s more about consistency, right?” Martinez said.

“Still want to get him in his legs a little bit hitting, and it’s good. We called him up today.

“We brought him out early to hit. I wanted Darnell [Coles] to put eyes on him, and CJ [Chris Johnson], and see where he’s at and we’ll continue to work with him.”

Lipscomb didn’t play in either of his first two games with the team in Detroit, but Martinez said he’s going to get him in soon.

“He’s going to play. We’ve got a couple lefties coming up, so I’m going to put him out there, haven’t decided where yet, but he’ll play here in the next few days.”