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 one of the fastest games in club history.

It took a mere 1 hour, 50 minutes for the Nationals to win this pitchers’ duel, matching the fastest nine-inning game in team history. Both hurlers helped their cause by working fast and throwing strikes, combining for only 206 total pitches. But both lineups did their part as well, making a ton of quick outs to keep this game moving at a breakneck pace.

"I actually didn't realize (how quick it was)," Soroka said. "I came in after the fifth, and it felt like the third. Credit to Corbin for what he did as well. ... Kept the pace doing, and the defense did a great job as well."

In the end, the Nats emerged victorious thanks to a scratched-out run in the bottom of the second 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 in a game that began at 6:45 p.m. and ended at 8:35 p.m.

"There was daylight still," manager Davey Martinez noted. "It was awesome."

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.

"He was the same guy, but he kept most of the pitches down," Martinez said. "When he's down like that, he's very effective. But he pitched, really, really well."

Sure enough, 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.

"Coming in, you know the game plan. He's going to try to work the corners," said Call, who was serving as DH for the first time in his career. "He certainly did on me. Went both sides of the plate. You just had to kind of wait him out and get something over the middle and not do too much. That was the plan."

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 on Call's long-awaited first homer of the season.

"I wanted to think I had enough on the one against the Cubs a couple nights ago that (Pete Crow-Armstrong) caught in the gap in left-center," Call said. "That was more of a hopeful one. This one was more like: Alright, that's outta here. That better leave this yard, or else I'm going to freak out."

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 García’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.

"I felt like it was exactly where it should be, especially when the fastball has life," Soroka said. "Everything works off fastballs, and the location on them. When you're beating guys on that, they kind of have to cheat on that. ... I felt like we just did a good job of stepping on the gas right away and never taking our foot off the pedal."

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 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.

"It was great, especially to have some adversity in that sixth inning and get to the point where sometimes in the last few games, it's just that one more pitch that needed executing that didn't get to a spot," he said. "This time, it did."