SAN DIEGO – It looked like it could have been the beginning of the end for Patrick Corbin in the Nationals rotation on June 5.

The veteran left-hander, now one of only two active players remaining from the 2019 World Series championship roster and in the last season of his six-year, $140 million contract that has kept him has the highest paid player on the team while statistically being one of the worst pitchers in the sport, once again gave up a lot of runs in a single outing.

The Mets tagged him for six runs on seven hits (three home runs) in 5 ⅓ innings. Four days later, Josiah Gray, an important piece to the Nats rotation of the future, made his first rehab start while coming back from a right elbow/forearm flexor strain.

The two have pitched close to the same day over the last two weeks, seemingly lining up Gray to take Corbin’s spot in the rotation once he was deemed ready. Corbin’s future with the team remained a mystery. Would they move him to the bullpen, where they currently have only one lefty reliever? Would they try to use a six-man rotation like they did with some success last year? Or would they simply cut ties with the 34-year-old as a pending free agent with very little trade value?

Well, if you look at the way Corbin has pitched since that start against the Mets, it’s as if he’s borrowing a line from Lee Corso: “Not so fast, my friend.”

Josiah Gray is going to retake the mound for the second start of his rehab assignment tonight with Double-A Harrisburg. The Senators are home against the Bowie Baysox (Orioles) with the injured right-hander starting and scheduled to go about four innings and 60-65 pitches.

Gray landed on the 15-day injured list on April 9 (retroactive to April 6) and made his first rehab start on Sunday with Single-A Fredericksburg. He threw 43 pitches and allowed three runs on three extra-base hits, awarded one walk, hit a batter and struck out two. He told reporters this week in Detroit that he focused mostly on his fastball and cutter.

Tonight, he’ll look to incorporate more of his extensive arsenal.

“I want to see him today to really attack the strike zone,” manager Davey Martinez said before Friday’s opener against the Marlins at Nationals Park. “Get ahead, finish. We always talk about finishing hitters in three pitches or less. I want to see him do that. Plus too, we talked a little bit about how to utilize his breaking ball. I want to see him throw it early in counts for strikes and see if he can do that. But the biggest thing is his mechanics. We got to make sure he hones in on his mechanics. That he's not flying open. I want his misses to be around the plate. So hopefully, he gets there today.”

Gray throws a whopping seven pitches: four-seam fastball, cutter, slider, curveball, sweeper, changeup and sinker. While the Nats would like to see him focus on a couple of them, they’re fine with him trying out as many as he wants in his rehab starts. As long as he throws them for strikes.

Confirmed: Josiah Gray will begin his long-awaited rehab assignment on Sunday with Single-A Fredericksburg.

After being cleared earlier this week to pitch in a competitive game for the first time in almost two months, the Nationals have finally locked down the date and time for the right-hander to retake the hill.

The FredNats take on the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers (White Sox) at Virginia Credit Union Stadium at 1:35 p.m. Gray will look to complete about three innings.

“We're looking for three ups, 50-55 pitches,” manager Davey Martinez said during his pregame media session. “If we get through that, that would be a good day for him. Then what we want to do is bring him back here after that. Let him go through his workouts here. And if everything goes well, the next one will probably be in Harrisburg. And then we'll go from there.”

Gray landed on the 15-day injured list on April 9 (retroactive to April 6) with a right elbow/forearm flexor strain. He had only made two starts to that point, giving up 15 hits, 13 runs and five walks with nine strikeouts over 8 ⅓ innings.

ATLANTA – Josiah Gray threw another live bullpen session today, one more step closer to returning from the 15-day injured list.

Gray landed on the IL with a right elbow/forearm flexor strain after just two starts in which he allowed 13 runs in 8 ⅓ innings. But after a long and patient rehab process, he finally returned to a mound to face live hitters for the first time on Saturday at Nationals Park.

He only threw 23 pitches, plus 27 warmup pitches, that first time. He got up to 76 today, including his warmups, at Truist Park while mixing in his off-speed stuff more.

“It was good. Better,” said manager Davey Martinez, who watched Gray alongside pitching coach Jim Hickey. “He threw a total of 76 pitches. And he threw the ball well. His breaking ball was sharp. A lot better today than it was the other day. Fastball was coming out pretty good. So he's doing good. He's in a good place right now. We'll continue to build him up and then we'll see where we go from there. I think he'll have one more live and then we'll make a decision and what we're going to do next.”

Likely to stay on a normal five-day rotation, the 26-year-old’s next live BP will come next week back in D.C. after the Nationals return from Cleveland.

The Austin Hays workouts are turning into an injury rehab assignment.

The Orioles announced that Hays will begin playing for Double-A Bowie on Tuesday night against the Akron RubberDucks at Prince George’s Stadium. First pitch is 6:35 p.m.

Hays is on the injured list since April 22 with a left calf strain. He was 5-for-45 with no extra-base hits and a .311 OPS in 19 games.

The recent at-bats were producing more solid contact and he collected a hit in each of his last two games. He tweaked the knee running from first to third base against the Royals on April 20 in Kansas City and decided he couldn’t cover the necessary ground in left field, which led to Colton Cowser as a defensive replacement and a trip to the IL.

Hays ramped up baseball activities Thursday at Camden Yards, sprinting between bases and taking batting practice on the field.

MIAMI – Almost exactly a year ago, Cade Cavalli walked into the visiting clubhouse at loanDepot Park and was reunited with his Nationals teammates for the first time since undergoing Tommy John surgery that ended his 2023 season in spring training.

At that time, he was in street clothes, having just made the trip down from the team’s facility in West Palm Beach where he had begun his lengthy rehab, and quickly changed into his Nats gear to be a part of the team again with a wide smile across his face.

On Friday, Cavalli made the same walk into the Nats clubhouse, only this time he was already in his Nats workout gear, which was covered in sweat from his latest bullpen session. And he still had that same wide smile across his face (although this time with a little more facial hair).

“It's been great. I'm extremely grateful to be where I'm at in the process,” Cavalli said of his rehabilitation in front of his locker with a No. 9 jersey hanging inside. “Just fully healthy and feeling very close to normal. And we got lives (live BP) on Monday for the first time, so I'm really looking forward to that. It'll be fun seeing batters.”

Cavalli, the Nats’ first-round pick in 2020 from the University of Oklahoma, has been throwing 60-pitch bullpen sessions and was scheduled to throw 75 in his latest one before facing live hitters for the first time. His fastball has been consistently hitting 96 mph, which is what it was averaging pre-injury in his one and only major league start to date on Aug. 26, 2022.

As he described the illness that sidelined him now for nearly two weeks, Keibert Ruiz was asked if he’d ever been that sick before.

“When I got COVID,” the Nationals catcher said. “This was kind of the same. My whole body was in pain. Fever every three, four hours. The whole night sweating.”

Ruiz has finally moved past the worst of his case of influenza, which first began afflicting him 13 days ago in San Francisco and ultimately forced him to the 10-day injured list. He described himself as “90 percent” better now after a particularly rough stretch while the team was on the West Coast last week.

Ruiz has been able to start some baseball activities, hitting off a pitching machine, participating in some defensive drills and partaking in some light weight lifting. He was set to begin running before today’s game against the Astros.

The ordeal took a real toll on the 25-year-old, who lost 18-to-20 pounds.

Kyle Bradish and Félix Bautista slipped on backpacks this morning and left the ballpark for their flights to Sarasota, where they can keep rehabbing at the complex.

Bradish threw a 35-pitch bullpen session yesterday at Camden Yards. He used all of his pitches after being limited early to his fastball following his diagnosis in January of a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.

“Feels really good,” he said.

The progress is encouraging since his platelet-rich plasma injection, but there’s no timeline for his return to the active roster and rotation.

“Still day-by-day, see how everything feels, see how I’m recovering,” he said.