Six strong innings, plus run support, earn Corbin his 100th win (updated)

Not that expectations were high for Patrick Corbin when this season began, but even the least optimistic observer out there had to assume the left-hander would reach his 100th career win along the way, and probably not that far along the way.

Corbin needed only three victories to get there. And even if the Nationals’ intention was to move the long-struggling veteran to the bullpen once Cade Cavalli or Josiah Gray was healthy, he surely would’ve achieved the milestone by then.

And yet here was Corbin taking the mound this afternoon to face the Rockies, making his 26th start of the season, his win total stuck on 99 as his ERA once again approached 6.00. Cavalli and Gray remain on the injured list, as does Trevor Williams, so Corbin still isn’t in danger of losing his spot in the rotation anytime soon.

But at long last, he can breathe a sigh of relief. He has finally reached the century mark, thanks to perhaps his best start of the year.

With six innings of one-run ball and a season-high eight strikeouts, Corbin never let the Rockies get anything going at the plate. And thanks to some long-awaited run support from his teammates, he and the Nats cruised to an 8-3 victory in their series finale against Colorado.

"I wish it happened a while ago," said Corbin, who noted his first career win in 2012 with the Diamondbacks came with Henry Blanco (now the Nationals' catching coach) behind the plate as his batterymate. "It's neat. I think I'll look back on it. I've been around for a little bit to be able to do something like that. It's pretty cool."

One strong outing isn’t about to erase Corbin’s entire 2024 season. He’s still 3-12 with a 5.63 ERA, in line to lead the league in losses for the fourth straight year before his $140 million contract mercifully expires.

But for this one afternoon, he was on top of his game and was properly rewarded for it.

"Regardless of how long it took, 100 wins is still a lot of wins," manager Davey Martinez said. "Congratulations to him and his family. What I can say about Patrick is, the guy competes. He goes out there every five days, takes the ball, will give us 110 pitches if we ask him to. He's been awesome."

Corbin set the tone from the outset, retiring the side in the top of the first on 15 pitches and notching his first two strikeouts of the day. He retired the side again in the second, needing only nine pitches to do it, and posted another zero in the third.

The Rockies threatened in the fourth, loading the bases with one out. But Corbin responded with his biggest pitch of the afternoon, getting Nolan Jones to ground into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.

"With this lineup today, knowing how aggressive they are, that was definitely a game plan we had going in," he said of his intent to take advantage of Colorado's hitting approach. "Things may vary here and there, but that was something I liked today."

Corbin then struck out four batters in row across the fifth and sixth innings, ensuring he would establish a season high in that category, and was one pitch away from ending his day with another K before Brenton Doyle drove a cutter into the left field bullpen for a solo homer to break up the shutout bid.

No matter, because that was the lone blemish on Corbin’s pitching line for the day.

The Nationals have supplied the left-hander with some of the worst run support in baseball this season, held to zero or one run in an astounding 11 of his 25 starts prior to today. Not that he had pitched well enough to warrant a winning record, but he certainly had pitched well enough to warrant a few more wins.

"Some days, they score a bunch of runs. Sometimes, things like that don't happen," he said. "You try to go out every fifth day, give it your best, and hope the team wins. And whether you get a win in the column or not, those things happen."

Run support was again scarce today early, but the Nats at least came through with one notable rally against Rockies starter Cal Quantrill, capped off by the latest fine piece of hitting by the youngest hitter in the lineup.

With two on and two out in the third, James Wood dug in to face Quantrill and proceeded to be fed a steady diet of splitters below the knees. Wood couldn’t help but swing at several of them, swings that at best produced awkward foul balls to keep the at-bat alive. He finally laid off a couple out of the zone. Then, when Quantrill uncorked his sixth consecutive splitter, this one just high enough to be a strike, Wood reached down and poked the ball into shallow center field for a two-run single and a 2-0 lead.

"I was kind of being stubborn. I was still staying on the fastball, hoping I might get one," said Wood, who now has 30 RBIs in 45 big league games, a 108-RBI pace over a full season. "But I just felt comfortable knowing, if I got a decent enough (splitter), I was going to be able to get a little bit of bat on it. ... It stung a little bit, off the end (of the bat). But I'll take that every time."

The Nationals wouldn’t score any more runs off Quantrill, but they then feasted on the Colorado bullpen as soon as manager Bud Black made the switch in the bottom of the sixth. Five straight batters reached against left-hander Lucas Gilbreath, three of them scoring to extend the lead on Corbin’s behalf.

CJ Abrams and Keibert Ruiz each doubled during the rally, with Luis García Jr. and José Tena each singling in a run as well to knock out Gilbreath. Juan Yepez would then add a three-run homer in the eighth off right-hander Peter Lambert to seal the deal and give the Nats pitching staff plenty of cushion.

The staff didn’t need much help. After Corbin departed following the sixth, Robert Garcia struck out three of the four batters he faced, and Jacob Barnes struck one of the two batters he faced. Joan Adon did surrender a two-run homer to Jacob Stallings in the ninth, but the lead was more than comfortable enough at that point to ensure the milestone victory for Corbin.

"I think last time we didn't get enough offense (to support Corbin)," Yepez said. "But now we got him the win. That's great. I'm really excited for him."