Washington Nationals drop second straight to Milwaukee Brewers, 5-1 final…

Davey Martinez’s club will have to try to salvage on in the series finale in Milwaukee.

Corbin vs MIL:

Patrick Corbin tossed four scoreless to start his last outing before tonight’s, but ended up giving up five runs on three home runs over his final 2+ innings on the mound in an 8-0 loss to Houston’s Astros. That outing left the left-hander (0-6) in eight starts this season, with a 6.28 ERA, a 4.20 FIP, 19 walks, 36 Ks, and a .286/.368/.441 line against in 38 ²⁄₃ IP.

It’s a work in progress with Corbin after two+ seasons now of struggles for the southpaw.

“He’s a professional, he’s working hard, and he’s working to get better,” Nats’ skipper Davey Martinez told reporters after the start against the ‘Stros, “and as you can see for me, I’ll go back, we’ll take away what he did really well, early on, and just reiterate that when you’re down, and using both sides of the plate, you’re really good and effective, you know. He threw some good changeups today as well, and when you’re up, when you leave the ball up is when you make mistakes. We got to keep going with him.”

Corbin ran into trouble early tonight, however, giving up a home run to right-center on the first pitch he threw, a sinker knee-high outside Andrew McCutchen hit to right-center field for a 1-0 lead one pitch into the bottom of the first.

Luis Urías and Christian Yelich singled, with Urías taking third on Yelich’s hit, before scoring on a sac fly to center field off Hunter Renfroe, 2-0.

Corbin retired seven in a row after a two-out hit-by-pitch later in the first, before giving up a leadoff single by Mike Brosseau in the bottom of the fourth, but he got the next three for 10 of 11 set down after the HBP in the Brewers’ first.

Corbin was up to 12 of 13 set down after retiring the first two batters in the Brewers’ half of the fifth, but he threw a first-pitch fastball to Luis Urías in the next at-bat, and Urías hit it to center field, 413 feet and off the top of the wall for Urías’s 3rd of 2022 and a 3-1 lead.

Back-to-back singles and a walk loaded the bases in front of Keston Hiura, who added to the lead with a two-run single to left, 5-1.

Patrick Corbin’s Line: 5.0 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 3 Ks, 2 HRs, 79 P, 52 S, 9/2 GO/FO.

Woodruff vs the Nationals:

Brandon Woodruff bounced back from a rough outing against the Cincinnati Reds (4 ¹⁄₃ IP, 8 H, 2 BB, 6 R, 5 ER) with a solid start against the Miami Marlins last time out before tonight (5 IP, 5 H, 2 BB, 3 R, 1 ER), after which the 29-year-old right-hander talked about things going in the right direction in an up-and-down 2022 campaign.

“Overall for me, this is a step in the right direction,” Woodruff told reporters, as quoted by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Curt Hogg.

“I know as a competitor, some of the results aren’t what I want but I’m super close to doing what I know I can do on a nightly basis.”

At home in American Family Field, the results have been there, though. Going into tonight’s start, he had a 1.62 ERA and a .143/.186/.268 line against in three starts and 16 ²⁄₃ IP at home, while he had a 9.00 ERA and a .342/.421/.566 line against in four starts and 17 IP away from Milwaukee.

Start No. 4 at home this season began with two scoreless frames, which Woodruff finished on 28 pitches, and he got up 0-2 on Lane Thomas in the first at-bat of the third, but threw a 97 MPH fastball inside Thomas lined out to left-center for a solo shot, his second home run this season, 2-1 Brewers.

Woodruff held it there through five, though a 19-pitch fifth (with 12 of 19 pitches thrown to Dee Strange-Gordon before a foul-tip strike three for out No. 2) pushed him up to 84 total.

A 16-pitch, 1-2-3 sixth left Woodruff at 100 total and ended his outing…

Brandon Woodruff’s Line: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 Ks, 1 HR, 100 P, 70 S, 5/2 GO/FO.

Thomas Quietly Plugging Away:

Lane Thomas got the start in center tonight. Thomas, the Nationals highlighted in their pregame notes for the game, “hit safely in 16 of 25 starts this season and reached base safely in 21 of the 25.”

Overall on the year, the Nats’ 26-year-old outfielder had a .204/.255/.290 line with three doubles, a triple, and a home run in 33 games and 102 plate appearances, but he hadn’t homered in 11 games since connecting for his first of 2022 on May 6th, before he took Brandon Woodruff deep to center to get the Nationals on the board in the third, down 2-1 after the home run.

Bullpen Action:

Erasmo Ramírez worked around two singles for a scoreless bottom of the sixth inning.

Brad Boxberger was first out of the ‘pen for the Brewers, and the right-hander gave up a one-out walk and back-to-back, two-out singles, loading the bases for César Hernández, who K’d swinging to end the threat.

Steve Cishek worked around a two-out single and walk for a scoreless bottom of the seventh.

Former National Trevor Gott came on in the eighth for the Brewers and gave up a leadoff walk to Juan Soto before Nelson Cruz grounded into a 4-6-3 DP and Josh Bell lined out to left.

Josh Rogers got the bottom of the eighth fro the Nationals, and the lefty

Hoby Milner got the ninth, but was replaced with two down after giving up back-to-back, one-out singles by Keibert Ruiz and Maikel Franco. Josh Hader came on and got out No. 3.

Nationals now 13-28