Corbin's struggles, Nats' mistakes lead to another loss (updated)

The final tally - Mets 4, Nationals 0 - suggested a one-sided game. It suggested yet another rough start for Patrick Corbin and yet another lifeless afternoon at the plate for a Nats lineup that has been shut out five times in 19 games to begin the season.

In reality, this had a chance to be a far more competitive ballgame, perhaps even a victory for the visitors. It proved not to be because the Nationals did just about everything in their power to spoil the countless opportunities they had to get on the board.

They ran themselves into two needless outs. They flailed away with runners in scoring position. And even when they made solid contact, they were denied by a couple of well-positioned or impressively athletic Mets defenders, all of which combined to foil whatever chance there was of a win today and a series win for the weekend.

"We had our chances today," manager Davey Martinez said in his postgame Zoom session with reporters. "We just couldn't get the ball to drop."

Corbin's struggles, to be sure, remain a significant headline. The left-hander couldn't record an out in the fifth inning, was charged with all four runs and could've been charged with more had a few things gone differently.

But the Nats beat themselves more than anything this afternoon in New York, and that should have left everyone stewing more than anything else.

With a chance to get on the board first for the second straight day, they instead posted a zero in the top of the first when Josh Harrison was caught leaning too far off first base on a 3-2 pitch to Yadiel Hernandez and was picked off by Taijuan Walker.

"I thought Yadi would put the ball in play," Martinez said of the pickoff on what appears to have been an attempted hit-and-run. "We know Walker's a groundball guy. So I thought it was a good time to get some action, try to score early."

A short while later with a chance to get something going in the top of the third, Victor Robles led off the inning with a double to right-center then ignored Bob Henley's obvious stop sign and was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple.

"For him, it's just these young mistakes. I'll talk to him about it," Martinez said of Robles, who twice this young season has been thrown out trying to swipe an extra base in a disadvantageous situation. "But right there, you can't make the first out at third base."

"Looking back, having the pitcher hit behind me, it would've been better and safer for me to stay at second base," Robles said via interpreter Octavio Martinez. "That would've been the smarter play, and then have him bunt me over. But at the same time, I give (the Mets) all the credit in the world. They made a great play right there."

Those were the self-inflicted wounds. There were some out of the Nationals' control, like when Josh Bell sent a 111 mph screamer right at the shifted Jonathan Villar in shallow right field, or when Kyle Schwarber drove a ball 409 feet to dead center field only to have former Cubs teammate Albert Almora Jr. rob him of extra bases with a leaping catch at the base of the wall.

"He's a really good outfielder," Schwarber said. "And we're really good buddies, too. I just couldn't help but laugh there. When I hit it, I thought it might have a chance. But as he kept running, I thought: 'Oh, man, it might have to get over his head.' And then he made a really good catch. We could've put up some runs there, had a momentum shift. But he made a good play."

There was indeed some bad luck, but the Nats as a whole went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, and that didn't help matters. Nor did the early exit of Trea Turner one inning after he was struck by a pitch on the left forearm. Martinez said afterward the star shortstop had X-rays taken on his arm, which came back negative. Turner has been diagnosed with a contusion, and the club will hope he's good to play when the team takes the field Tuesday night against the Blue Jays.

The Nationals had reason to be optimistic entering this one, based on the way Corbin looked in his last start. It was a complete 180-degree turn from his ragged pair of outings to begin the season, and there were some signs it would be sustainable.

But it was quickly evident today this Corbin start would bear far more resemblance to his first two than his most recent. He struggled to locate his fastball in the bottom of the first, consistently missing up and in to right-handed hitters, and his slider wasn't darting toward the batter's back foot the way it did Tuesday versus the Cardinals.

One of those sliders wound up in the worst possible location: over the plate to J.D. Davis. And it wound up where pitches like that usually wind up: over the fence for a two-run homer.

"Falling behind is never good," Corbin said. "And when I'm not able to throw the breaking ball in the zone (or) attack with my fastball, it just puts them in hitter counts. I kind of threw a lazy slider up there for the first homer."

Corbin did start to find a groove for a while and at one point threw six consecutive fastballs for strikes. But he got himself into trouble again in the fourth, surrendering three straight singles to open the frame, the last of which brought home the Mets' third run. It was shaping up to be a disastrous inning, but the lefty was bailed out by Schwarber's sliding catch in shallow left field and a generous called third strike on a 3-2 fastball to Brandon Nimmo with the bases loaded.

Martinez could've elected to call it a day right there and cut his losses with Corbin, but he let his starter bat for himself with two on and nobody out in the top of the fifth, then let him take the mound for the bottom of the inning. Two batters later, Martinez was walking to the mound and signaling for his bullpen. Corbin had grooved a fastball to Pete Alonso, who nearly hit the big apple beyond the center field wall, then surrendered a single to Francisco Lindor, to end his afternoon.

"He threw the ball well (in the fourth), got out of a big moment with the strikeout," Martinez said. "We felt like: Hey, let's see if he can get us to the sixth inning. His pitch count was still at 75 pitches. It just didn't happen. Once he gave up the couple hits there, I thought that was good enough."

Corbin would be charged with four runs in those four-plus innings, and it easily could've been more had Schwarber not made a perfect throw to the plate to nab Lindor trying to tag up. And so with his ERA through four starts now 10.47 and his WHIP now 2.040, the Nationals have to go back to the drawing board.

"The results are frustrating," the lefty said. "But you just try to learn from it. It's just tough to go out there and not be able to do my job. Going four innings, not being able to finish the fifth there ... you try to look back on those things. But you've just got to continue to do your work in between and try to turn things around."