Hearing from Corbin, Martinez and García after a 6-3 loss

JUPITER, Fla. - When Nationals manager Davey Martinez outlined his desire to delay Patrick Corbin's first Grapefruit League start until the beginning of the second week of exhibition games, the left-hander took the one-week deferral in stride.

"I actually didn't think too much about it," Corbin said. "I was told the 29th was my first game, but it was good. I think it was smart, a smart move, just with how much a lot of us did throw last year. Max (Scherzer) wanted to throw Game 1, so he was a little different. But I think it's good for all of us. We'll still get plenty of starts, plenty of innings this spring to build up. We're ready to go."

Corbin threw the first two innings of the Nationals' 6-3 loss to the Cardinals on Saturday, allowing a run on one hit and two walks without a strikeout. He yielded a long wind-blown home run by Paul DeJong in the second on an 0-1 pitch that was elevated a little too much.

"I liked what I saw out of Pat," Martinez said. "Had some nice fluidity. He was getting extended, which was kind of nice. He felt good. Now we'll ... build him up for his next outing. He said he felt great."

But since he came out of the outing feeling good, Corbin will start working on his next start, which should come Friday.

"First time being out there, seems like it's been a while," he said after throwing 24 pitches, 11 for strikes. "I think you just want to come out feeling good. Was able to throw everything out there and continue to (build up) that pitch count."

The Nationals briefly tied the game in the seventh inning, when a two-run homer by Luis García and Brandon Snyder's RBI single made it 3-3 before left-hander Ben Braymer yielded three runs in the bottom of the inning.

García connected on a laser to center field, his first spring home run. He's hitting .455 with a 1.180 OPS.

"It felt great," he said through translator Octavio Martinez, adding that his early work has started to pay dividends.

Catcher Kurt Suzuki threw out Cardinals leadoff hitter Kolten Wong in the first after he drew a walk. Martinez said the veteran backstop's work with bullpen coach Henry Blanco, a longtime major league catcher, is paying off.

"He's been working with Henry every morning, just trying to get quicker feet, a quicker release," Martinez said. "He's a lot shorter than he was last year. That was really nice. Wong went on first move, Corbin was 1.5 (seconds to the plate) and he still threw him out, so that was encouraging."

Third baseman Carter Kieboom had another rough day in the field, letting a bad-hop single by John Nogowski go through his legs in the fifth, when the Cardinals plated two runs for a 3-0 lead.

A generous official scorer's call prevented Kieboom from picking up his third error of the spring, but Martinez pointed out that the conditions at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium aren't particularly kind to infielders.

"To me, this is hardest field to play the infield," the manager said. "The ball comes off of that (cream-colored) backdrop, you really can't see it. So I'm not going to really evaluate what he does here on the field. He'll come back home and play tomorrow."

Victor Robles, who hasn't played in three days after appearing to hurt his side on a wayward throw in Tampa on Wednesday, hit in the cage back in West Palm Beach and felt fine, Martinez said. An MRI yesterday showed no significant injury.