Corbin changes things up, rebounds after rocky start to set tone

JUPITER, Fla. - Take away the first five Cardinals batters faced by Nationals pitching - all reaching base via hit, erasing a 2-0 deficit - and Davey Martinez would have spent his postgame press briefing talking about a day filled with dominant mound efforts.

As it was, the Nationals were still pretty good - even starter Patrick Corbin, whose brief struggle with locating his fastball in the first inning allowed the Cardinals to take the lead for good in a game that breezed by in 2 hours, 19 minutes thanks to some pitch-efficient relief work.

"That's the beauty about spring training," Martinez said of Corbin's afternoon. "You go out there and he understands he's trying to get his work in and he wasn't going to get rattled. A young pitcher, if you see him go through that, things might get quicker. He has the ability to slow everything back down and control his heartbeat."

Provided an early lead on successive first-inning home runs by Matt Adams and Jake Noll off Michael Wacha, Corbin struggled out of the chute. Dexter Fowler led off with a double and went to third on Yadier Molina's single. José Martínez doubled to put runners at second and third, and RBI singles by Rangel Ravelo and Matt Wieters ended the uprising.

"Just trying to establish my fastball early. I don't know if they were mistakes," Corbin said. "I thought I was down in the zone a little bit, gave up maybe too much of the plate. Gave up a couple of hits there. I thought I made a couple decent pitches that also fell in. It seems like I couldn't get an out there."

Corbin settled down to get Harrison Bader to fly out to left, then induced Yairo Muñoz to ground into an around-the-horn double play started by third baseman Noll on an unexpected pitch.

The lefty broke out his changeup, a pitch he threw less than 2 percent of the time last season but one he always works on in bullpen sessions, with the intention of perfecting it enough to add as a fifth pitch behind his fastball, sinker, slider and curve. He'd like to get usage of the changeup to about 5 percent.

"I always threw it," he said. "I throw it in all my bullpens. We kind of didn't use it too much in games last year. But it was something today, we were trying to throw more and get more consistent with that pitch. Just another weapon."

Corbin got four of his eight groundball outs using the change, and though he gave up a single to Wieters on one, he felt comfortable with its progression.

"If he can have it and throw it for a visual - that's what that pitch really is for him - it's good," Martinez said. "It'd be really good. I really like the fact that he's not afraid to pitch in. When I see that he's got ... a lot of ground balls, that's really good."

After the first inning, Martinez and pitching coach Derek Lilliquist approached Corbin in the dugout to check on him. He quickly convinced them that he was fine, then went out and retired the final eight hitters he faced. On the day, Corbin allowed three runs on six hits, throwing 35 of his 49 pitches for strikes.

"He understands what he needs to do," Martinez said. "After the first inning today, we went down, talked to him to see how he's doing, and he says, 'I really needed that. I'm going to go out there and be more efficient.' And he did."

The rest of the Nationals staff followed Corbin's lead. Pitching for the first time since Feb. 26, Sean Doolittle turned in a 1-2-3 inning. Joe Ross, Tanner Rainey and Austen Williams threw scoreless frames. For the afternoon, the bullpen went four innings, allowing a hit and fanning four.

"The bullpen, those guys are starting to get it," Martinez said. "We preach all the time: strike one, strike one, working ahead in counts. And we're starting to see some guys doing that."

But Corbin definitely set the tone, shaking off his early issues and re-setting.

"Sometimes those innings can get on you when you throw 30 pitches in an inning," he said. "It happens through the course of the year. But it's good to be able to have that in the first and then finish four innings when you're on a limited pitch count. Just continue to build off that and get stronger."

"It was good for him to actually work through that inning and then come back and do what he did," Martinez said. "It's a testament to how hard he works. The four up-and-downs was perfect for him."

Three starts into his spring, Corbin likes where he is.

"I felt good. Thought I could have gone out there again for the fifth, so that was a positive," he said. "I wasn't fatigued at all. It feels like the ball's coming out better each game, so continue to build on that. I think I have three starts (left), so plenty of time to make sure everything's working for the regular season."