Corbin steps up with quality start when Nats needed one

Patrick Corbin knew the situation when he took the mound Sunday afternoon at Nationals Park. He knew what happened to the home club on opening day, then again on Saturday. He knew the responsibility that rested upon his left arm in his first-ever start for his new team.

"I just wanted to go out there and give us a chance to win after those first two games," he said. "I'm not saying we had to win this, but I just wanted to go out there and do my best."

Corbin wasn't quite calling the Nationals' series finale against the Mets a must-win game. But he wasn't downplaying its significance, either.

On the heels of back-to-back frustrating losses to the Mets, and with Bryce Harper and the now 3-0 Phillies coming to town Tuesday, there was some legitimate urgency for the Nationals to emerge Sunday with their first win of 2019.

And Corbin was comfortable being the guy tasked with helping make that happen. He delivered with a thoroughly effective, six-inning start, allowing two runs on seven hits while striking out four. And though he wound up with no-decision after the Nats bullpen blew a three-run lead only to watch Trea Turner send everybody home happy with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth, Corbin most certainly did his job.

"He was really good," manager Davey Martinez said.

The debut outing for a $140 million pitcher would seem to be a major event. But for whatever reason - Corbin's low-key persona, the fact he's the No. 3 starter on a staff that includes Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg, the larger significance of the Nationals' opening series - this didn't come across as a big deal to most.

Corbin received a nice ovation from the crowd of 23,430, but nothing over the top. Then he went out and did his job with an effective performance that was short on drama either good or bad.

This actually didn't look like a typical Corbin start, at least like a typical start of his during his breakthrough 2018 season with the Diamondbacks. Last year, he struck out at least five batters in 31 of 33 starts. On Sunday, he struck out only four in six innings. Last year, he recorded 1.46 groundball outs for every flyball out. On Sunday, he recorded eight outs in the air and only six on the ground.

Perhaps the conditions on South Capitol Street helped make that approach successful. On a damp, 55-degree day with a 20-mph wind blowing in from left field, Corbin could afford to give up some fly balls. Outside of Turner's two homers, the ball simply wasn't carrying Sunday.

Corbin, a native of Syracuse, N.Y., might have felt right at home in the conditions.

"Yeah, in high school we used to do that quite a bit," he said. "It was all right. A little different than Florida. Just put a lot of Red Hot on try to stay warm. It wasn't bad. It was good."

The Nationals will take plenty more starts like that out of Corbin this season, and for the next five seasons they've got him after that.

And if some of those strong outings happen to play a role in ending a losing streak ... well, Corbin is perfectly comfortable being this team's stopper if needed.

"Yeah. I mean, the season just started," he said. "But it felt good to go out there and get through six innings with the lead."