Corbin bounces back from rocky first inning, finishes seven in 2-0 loss

The first inning did not go Patrick Corbin's way, but it could have been worse.

The Nationals left-hander allowed two runs to the Orioles in that first frame, but escaped the inning and then fired six scoreless innings. In the end, the Nats offense could not muster any runs against Orioles starter Aaron Brooks and four relievers as Baltimore stunned the Nats 2-0.

Orioles third baseman Hanser Alberto went after Corbin's first offering, a 91.9 mph two-seam fastball, smacking the pitch into center field for a base hit. Trey Mancini was hit by an 81 mph slider.

Anthony Santander dropped a line drive double to deep left field over the head of Juan Soto on a 2-2 fastball and the Orioles led 1-0. Later, Jonathan Villar delivered a line drive sacrifice fly to center field to score Mancini and the Birds led 2-0.

"First pitch of the game got the base hit and then I hit a guy," Corbin recounted. "So, I kind of got in trouble right away, left the fastball out over, led to a double to score a run and then sac fly. They came out swinging."

But then Corbin (10-6) got out of the first and came back to post six straight shutout innings, giving up only two singles the rest of the way. His line was impressive: seven innings, four hits, two runs, no walks and nine strikeouts. Corbin threw 104 pitches, 69 for strikes.

"We knew they were going to be aggressive, just kind of maybe didn't execute the best, and then after that felt pretty good, felt in control, felt good all game," Corbin said. "Sometimes this happens where their guy comes out and shuts us out. It's baseball. I think everybody in here will be ready to go tomorrow and bounce back."

Nationals manager Davey Martinez said the Orioles saw Corbin's two-seamer well in the first inning, and that proved to be a game changer in a 2-0 loss.

"They're a young team, they hit fastballs," Martinez said. "That's what they do. When he threw the first pitch of the game, it wasn't a bad pitch, ball up in the zone a little bit, guy hits the ball up the middle. And then he left another ball kind of up a little bit, but he was pretty good after that."

Corbin got stronger as the game wore on, striking out at least two batters in each of his final four innings. He said he did not let those first two runs affect the rest of his start, befuddling the Birds the rest of the way. The southpaw said he banked on his club being able to get their offense on a roll. It just never materialized.

"I still felt good. They got a couple hits, got a couple runs on," Corbin said. "But like you guys said with our offense I thought if I minimized damage, pitch as deep as I could. I mean not many times we are going to get shut out."

Right fielder Adam Eaton, who went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, was not surprised Corbin found a way to stay in the game after a couple of runs allowed in the first.

"He's a professional. It's awesome to see," Eaton said. "It takes me back to college, where sometimes you have a college pitcher that if he doesn't have it in the first inning it's not ever going to be turned around. Or in high school, it's not ever going to be turned around.

"But you see the professionalism in him. He comes back, he takes a deep breath and then he does what he needs to do. And we knew that. We knew he was going to do that. The type of pitcher he is, the type of person he is. Just couldn't get it done. But heck of an outing by him, and I wish we could reward him for how he came back."

Not all was bad by Corbin Tuesday night, besides the two runs in the first inning. The left-hander is still pitching very well, and has pitched well for two and a half months.

The loss was only Corbin's first since June 11 against the White Sox. Dating back to June 19, Corbin is 5-1 with a 2.16 ERA and 99 strikeouts. It's amazing to think Corbin has allowed only two runs in his last two starts, spanning 15 innings. This game was also the first time since July 7 against the Royals that Corbin had not walked a batter in a start. Even with this hard-luck loss, Corbin has lasted seven or more innings in 11 starts this season.