Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats shut out in second-straight loss to White Sox…

Notes and quotes from the Nationals’ loss to the White Sox on Wednesday afternoon…

CORBIN IN CHICAGO:

“That was great,” Davey Martinez told reporters after a 5-1 win over the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park, which saw his club score three runs early and add a pair late, giving starter Patrick Corbin a lead to work with in a strong, five-inning outing which he gave up seven hits but just one run.

“I always say, if we come out and jump to get the lead early, it gets our pitchers to relax a little bit,” the manager explained. “We did that and he was able to settle in a little bit. He gave us what we needed. And the bullpen came in and shut it down.”

Corbin threw 86 pitches (23 of them in a long 5th inning which started with back-to-back hits, but ended with both of the runners stranded), 54 for strikes, with just nine swinging, but 15 called strikes in the outing, in which he earned his first (totally meaningless pitcher) win in his 8th start (5.91 ERA, 4.12 FIP, 3.38 BB/9, 6.12 K/9, and .341/.390/.540 line against).

Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images

“I got into a good rhythm as the game went on,” Corbin said, as quoted by MASN’s Bobby Blanco, giving credit to catcher Keibert Ruiz as well. “I thought we used all the pitches well. Pitched them in, pitched them away, change of speeds. That last inning there, the two infield hits there to get into a jam and then made some good pitches after that. So it was just good to get through five there and keep the lead there. We tacked on a couple of runs late and kind of put the game out of reach.”

Trying to follow up on his positive start in yesterday’s series finale with the White Sox on the South Side of Chicago, Corbin once again put together a solid outing, but this time, the run support wasn’t there, as the Nationals, who were shut out in the nightcap of Tuesday’s twin bill, came up empty again, in what ended up a 2-0 loss.

Corbin tossed two scoreless innings to start the appearance in Guaranteed Rate Field, but with a runner on first and one out (after a leadoff walk and a force at second), Tommy Pham lined an RBI double to left field Ildemaro Vargas misplayed when it ricocheted off the wall in foul territory, and hopped over the outfielder’s glove, 1-0.

After working around back-to-back hits which started the Sox’ fourth, Corbin stranded one runner in the sixth (with help from an odded 6-unassisted double play (at first?) with Nasim Nuñez catching a liner to short and jogging across the field to tag first base after the runner failed to return, and Nats’ first baseman Joey Meneses abandoned his post.

Vargas misplayed a line drive to left with two out in the sixth, and the Nationals went to the bullpen at that point, and the runner Corbin left on base came around to score, with Derek Law on the mound for the visitors, 2-0.

Corbin got just five swinging strikes overall, though he got 19 called strikes on the day, and generated nine ground ball outs from the 23 batters he faced, in another solid outing.

“Felt good throughout the day,” Corbin said after the outing. “Got ahead of guys, made some pitches, got a lot of ground balls today, used the changeup, but yeah, just tried to keep us in the game there.”

“Patrick pitched really good again,” his manager said, “we just can’t get that big hit.”

After going 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and seven left on base in Tuesday’s 4-0 loss, the Nationals went 0 for 9 with RISP and nine left on base in their second-straight shutout loss.

“We haven’t had that one timely hit. We get bases loaded, we’ve got a chance to knock in some runs, we’re just not getting that timely hit,” Martinez added.

“We weren’t able to score today,” Corbin told reporters. “Just a tough game. [The White Sox] pitched well today, so just try to move on past this series and enjoy the off-day tomorrow, and we’re going to have a tough game against Philly.”

Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images

CLEAN IT UP:

Manager Davey Martinez talked after Tuesday’s doubleheader with the White Sox in Chicago about the three errors by his club in the first game of the twin bill, telling reporters some of the mistakes in the field in the last few weeks have come as a surprise for him.

On the year, the Nationals’ 27 errors as a team after Tuesday’s games were tied for the 5th-most in the majors with five other clubs, but as Washington Post beat writer Andrew Golden noted in the first of two in Guaranteed Rate Field, the majority of the errors have come over the past couple weeks:

Martinez’s take on the recent mistakes, or misplays in the field (not to mention all of the recent gaffes on the bases)?

“It’s very unexpected, because we’ve played really well,” he said after a split with the Sox in the first two of three in Chicago. “We got young kids, right? Things are going to happen, so we got to just keep working them, keep praising them because they are playing well. We just got to forget about that.”

“Defensively we’ve got to shore it up,” GM and President of Baseball Ops Mike Rizzo said in his weekly visit with Audacy’s The Sports Junkies in 106.7 the FAN.

“Too many errors recently, after the first month of being an elite defensive team we’ve been making too many errors,” Rizzo told the Junkies.

“So that’s something that we’re aware of and we’re making the players aware of it. As the season pushes on the more fatigue sets in the more you have to focus and concentrate on those routine balls each and every pitch.”

Remaining focused and concentrated on every pitch, Rizzo acknowledge, is exhausting, but that’s part of the game at this level.

“You should be exhausted after the game, mentally and physically,” he said. “Because every pitch… you’re on defense for 140-150 pitches, every pitch you need to be engaged and that’s tiring and exhausting, and at times when you take that pitch off, oftentimes that ball finds you. And that’s where your errors happen, even the physical errors are more focus-based and mental than physical.

“That’s something that young infielders like [Trey] Lipscomb has to figure out and [CJ] Abrams and [Luis] Garcia. And Ricky Gutiérrez and Miguel Cairo work with those guys constantly, every day.

“We took a long infield yesterday even during the doubleheader and we’ll certainly take one in Philadelphia.”