LOS ANGELES – There is no greater indignity for a starting pitcher then to see his manager emerge from the dugout steps and make the long, slow walk toward him in the first inning. Unless said starter is injured or dealing with some other abnormal circumstances, the first-inning hook is as humiliating a fate as a big league pitcher will ever experience. Which is why it happens so infrequently.
It had never happened to Patrick Corbin in his career, not in his first start, not in his 100th start, not in his 200th start, not in any of countless other miserable starts during a miserable three-year stretch for the Nationals left-hander.
And then, in career start No. 250, there stood Corbin on the mound, the Dodgers having scored six runs in the bottom of the first, all of them scoring with two outs, his pitch count up to a whopping 45. And here came Davey Martinez to ask for the ball and leave his veteran starter taking the walk of shame back to the dugout as the Dodger Stadium crowd serenaded him.
"He faced 10 hitters. He was behind five of them," Martinez said. "And the guys he got ahead of, he just couldn't put them away. That was the big deal right there. And he had a lot of pitches, so we had to go get him."
Everything that transpired over the remaining eight-plus innings in the Nationals’ 7-1 loss to the Dodgers felt inconsequential. Only hours after pulling off their most dramatic win of the season, the Nats showed up for this early-afternoon matinee with a shot at their first series sweep of the season, their first-ever series sweep in this historic ballpark. Those dreams, for all intents and purposes, were dashed before the first inning even came to a close.