Lester, Corbin both pitch as Nats try to figure out order

A manager has two goals on March 28: Get everybody who still needs work enough work before camp ends, and make sure everybody's healthy when the charter plane takes off in 24 hours.

Davey Martinez took solace in both regards following the Nationals' 11-3 win over the Cardinals today in the penultimate game of the Grapefruit League season. His heart did skip a beat momentarily when Josh Harrison (just named the opening night second baseman) was struck by a pitch in the left hand, though Martinez said everything turned out fine there.

The most important thing that happened this afternoon in West Palm Beach, Fla., was the pair of pitching outings the Nationals got from Jon Lester and Patrick Corbin, a couple of starters who both needed the work today and got it.

With only one day left on the exhibition schedule, and Stephen Strasburg still needing to make his final start Monday against the Astros, the Nationals had little choice but to use both Lester and Corbin today. Lester, who has behind the rest of his teammates following his March 5 surgery to remove a parathyroid gland from his neck, was deemed more in need of the start, while Corbin pitched in relief.

"Things were going to be different for somebody, and it happened to fall on my day," Corbin said during a Zoom session with reporters. "I know Jon's still trying to build up, so it was important for him to get up to that pitch count."

Lester proceeded to throw 75 pitches across 4 1/3 innings in his third official start of a condensed spring. He struggled at times with his command and continues to search for the right feel on his curveball, but the lefty was most pleased with how he felt physically as he walked off the mound.

"I feel good," he said. "I think any point in spring training, anytime you take a step, there's going to be probably some fatigue in there. That's just the process we're in right now. We're building 'til you get to that magic number of 95-100 pitches or whatever, and hopefully you can sustain that. But energy level was good. I felt like I had some good drive down the mound. I felt like I held my legs pretty good for the day. Like I said, build on this one and go into the next and get kind of close to that number."

Ideally, Lester would have one more start in Florida before making his season debut. The schedule doesn't permit that, but the Nationals could still figure out a way to get him another tune-up of sorts in a simulated game after they arrive in D.C. In theory, he could do that Friday (an off-day for the team following Thursday night's opener against the Mets), get his pitch count up higher and then make his 2021 debut April 7 against the Braves in the team's sixth game of the season.

"We'll probably talk about it tomorrow, get a game plan going forward," Lester said. "Obviously, at the beginning of the season, you usually have a lot of off-days. We'll figure it out. We'll figure out where I can slot in and make it work. Try not to mess too many things up along the way."

Among the considerations - at least in Lester's mind - would be to potentially split up the two left-handers in the Nationals rotation. Lester said he believes it's better not to have lefties start back-to-back days when possible, so don't be surprised if he and Corbin wind up separated by one or two right-handers. (Though Lester also admits he's not the one to make that decision.)

Whenever he's told to pitch next, Corbin insists he'll be ready following today's relief outing. Knowing he likely wouldn't have enough innings to build up his pitch count as much as ideally necessary, he threw extra in the bullpen prior to entering the game for the top of the sixth. He wound up throwing 57 pitches in four scoreless innings, closing out the win allowing only two batters to reach base against him.

It was eerily reminiscent of another relief outing in Corbin's career, one that carried far more weight than this one did.

"That's what I was telling Davey: I was preparing for the postseason," he said with a laugh.