Corbin takes one for the team in lopsided loss to Bucs (updated)

PITTSBURGH – Patrick Corbin was going to throw 100 pitches this afternoon, no matter how many innings it required, no matter how many runs scored along the way. One day after Davey Martinez had to push his bullpen to the absolute limit to secure a doubleheader sweep over the Pirates, it was time to pay the bill. Martinez was going to have to stick with Corbin, hoping the long-suffering lefty could at least give his team a chance.

He did not. Corbin gave up four runs during a laborious bottom of the first, stayed out there another five innings because he had to, and the Nationals slogged their way through a 7-3 loss that featured very few encouraging moments for the visitors.

It may not have mattered much if Corbin pitched well, because the Nats lineup looked feeble most of the afternoon against Jared Jones. The Pirates’ other flame-throwing rookie right-hander gave up two early runs but completely locked in after that and retired the last 16 batters he faced before departing at the end of the seventh. Reliever Jalen Beeks would extend that streak to 19 before Carmen Mlodzinski gave up back-to-back hits to James Wood and Andrés Chaparro in the ninth, at which point it was too late.

"That kid (Jones) settled down a little bit," Martinez said. "His fastball was electric. His breaking ball was pretty good. ... We just couldn't get nothing going offensively until late in the game. And it just wasn't enough."

Then again, the Nationals could be excused for struggling to summon up much energy after expending so much to pull off Saturday’s impressive doubleheader sweep, especially when they trailed throughout this game.

The Nats did actually jump out to a 1-0 lead when CJ Abrams led off the game with a deep blast to right-center, his 19th homer of the season, five of those leading off the first inning. They got another run in the top of the second thanks to Jacob Young’s two-out RBI single to right.

But that’s the last hit they got off Jones, who retired 16 in a row following the Young hit, seven of those via strikeout. What stood out about the 23-year-old the Pirates hope to pair with Paul Skenes for years to come?

"I think the life on the fastball," Abrams said. "You've got to stay on that one. And then he has a pretty good offspeed. And he's around the plate. He did a good job today."

Knowing he needed to provide length above all else today, with four relievers unavailable after pitching both ends of Saturday’s twin bill, Corbin took the mound in the bottom of the first and immediately made that task more difficult for himself. During the course of a 27-pitch opening frame, he allowed five hits, with four runs crossing the plate via a whole lot of loud contact.

Joey Bart’s two-run homer to left got the scoring started. Bryan De La Cruz’s two-out double to left kept the rally alive. And Billy Cook’s two-run double down the left field line in his first career at-bat completed the rally and left Corbin and the Nats staring at an early deficit.

There was never any movement in the visitors’ bullpen, though, nor should there have been under the circumstances. Corbin was going to keep pitching as long as he could, no matter the score.

"No one ever wants a game to start like that. It's tough," said Corbin, who won his previous three starts, allowing three total runs in the process. "But I'm still going to go out there. It was good to get through six innings. I wish a couple things would've gone differently. But to have a doubleheader yesterday and come back the way we did, use a lot of those (relievers). Most of them were probably down today. It stinks that we weren't able to win, or that I wasn't able to put up more zeroes."

And the Pirates would score twice more off him. Andrew McCutchen, owner of 25 homers in 103 career games against the Nationals, notched his 26th with a no-doubt blast to left to open the bottom of the third. One inning later, Luis García Jr. charged in to field a slow grounder to second and threw to the plate thinking he had a play there. He did not, which became obvious when Alika Williams slid in ahead of the tag to give Pittsburgh its sixth run of the afternoon.

Run No. 7 came in the bottom of the sixth, from a familiar face. Michael A. Taylor, Corbin’s former teammate and fellow 2019 World Series champion, launched the 100th home run of his career to put the final stamp on this game.

Thus did Corbin surrender seven runs for the fifth time this season, the 11th time in the last three seasons. He’s got three more scheduled starts on his calendar before the season – and his contract – expire.

"I say this all the time: Forget about his record, forget about everything. The guy goes out there to pitch, to give you length every five days," Martinez said. "He's awesome, he really is. I can't (enough) about what he meant to us over these last few years, especially with our young pitching staff and how he helped them. And how he takes the ball and gives us what we need when the other guys are out. It saves our bullpen."