Patrick Corbin was very good in his return to Nationals Park. Michael Soroka and the Nationals bullpen were better.
Despite watching their former teammate churn out the kind of effective start he rarely provided them the last five seasons – eight innings of two-run ball – the Nats managed to plate a couple of runs off the left-hander, then rode Soroka’s six scoreless innings and three more from three relievers to beat the Rangers 2-0 in the fastest game in club history.
It took a mere 1 hour, 49 minutes for the Nationals to win this pitchers’ duel, the fastest nine-inning game in team history. Both hurlers helped their cause by working fast and throwing strikes. But both lineups did their part as well, making a ton of quick outs to keep this game moving at a breakneck pace.
In the end, the Nats emerged victorious thanks to a scratched-out run in the bottom of the seventh and then a solo blast by Alex Call in the bottom of the seventh off Corbin.
And with Soroka done after his six scoreless frames, the relief trio of Brad Lord, Jose A. Ferrer and Kyle Finnegan finished the job to secure the opener of this weekend series.
A late-arriving crowd gave Corbin a warm round of applause when his name was introduced as the Rangers’ starting pitcher – the Nationals plan to give him a formal video tribute Saturday – and the left-hander took his place on a very familiar mound wearing a very unfamiliar uniform for the first time since he was with the Diamondbacks in 2018.
He arrived here with solid traditional stats (3.71 ERA, 1.256 WHIP) in 10 starts to date, but with peripheral numbers (strikeout rate, walk rate, home run rate) quite similar to what he put forth the last several years for the Nats. Why the better bottom-line results? Two facets stood out:
* Better defense behind him. The Rangers rank second in the majors in Defensive Runs Saved. The Nationals have ranked near the bottom of the league for several years now.
* A better bullpen behind him. Rangers relievers have allowed only 15.4 percent of runners bequeathed to them by Corbin to score this season. Nationals relievers allowed 55.6 percent of them to score the last two seasons.
And indeed, there were several nice plays made in the field tonight to help Corbin out, particularly by second baseman Marcus Semien. The Nationals did get to him for a run in the bottom of the second, but even in that case it felt like they still came up short.
Back-to-back singles by former Ranger Nathaniel Lowe and Call set the stage for a big rally. And when Riley Adams drove the first pitch he saw from Corbin deep to left, it looked like the Nats might be on the verge of a 3-0 lead. Adams’ drive, though, barely stayed in the park and was caught by Wyatt Langford at the wall for a very loud out. Robert Hassell III’s RBI grounder moments later would bring Lowe home, but that was merely a 1-0 lead for the home club.
Corbin would cruise along after that, the only other hit he surrendered until the seventh a little dribbler to his right by James Wood. Until Call stepped up for his third at-bat of the night, saw a first-pitch slider up in the zone and ambushed it. The ball cleared the left field wall, just a bit farther than Adams’ earlier near-miss, and the Nationals had themselves a 2-0 lead.
With little margin for error, Soroka had to be perfect in the top halves of each inning. And the right-hander nearly was. He retired the first eight batters he faced, then brushed off a pitch that struck Kyle Higashioka to strike out Josh Smith and end the third with zeros still on the board.
Soroka wound up retiring 14 of the first 15 batters he faced before finally allowing his first hit (Adolis Garcia’s opposite-field single with two outs in the fifth). By that point, he already had notched all seven of his strikeouts, taking full advantage of a sharp-breaking slurve that induced a bunch of ugly swings out of Texas’ overly aggressive batters.
The key sequence, though, came in the top of the sixth. This has been a sticking point for Soroka all season, the point at which good starts have turned into meh starts. And he appeared to be headed right back there when he allowed a one-out single to Smith before issuing a two-out walk to Corey Seager. His pitch count approaching 30 for that inning alone, with Brad Lord warm in the bullpen, Soroka stared down Semien and made the pitch he needed to emerge unscathed, inducing a lazy fly ball to right to end the sixth and maintain the Nationals’ slim lead.
Then it was up to the bullpen to finish what he started and make sure Soroka’s best start of the season wouldn’t go to waste.