Nats lefty Corbin on mound to start year

WASHINGTON — No pitcher in Major League Baseball took more losses last season than Washington Nationals left-hander Patrick Corbin, with 19. He also had the dubious distinction of leading MLB with 16 losses in 2021.

His ERA in 2022 was 6.31. A year earlier? 5.82.

Hard not to notice those numbers. Hard not to comment on them. Corbin is all too aware.

“Doesn’t really matter what other people are saying,” he said this week. “I just kind of believe in myself and what I’ve done.”

That includes, most notably, a starring role as a starter and reliever when the Nationals won the 2019 World Series. If that seems as if it was forever ago, it’s probably because it was, in some ways, for a franchise that has finished last in the National League East Division every year since and went 55-107 overall in 2022.

Thursday is opening day — there are 15 games on the schedule as every MLB team will begin on the same day for the first time in more than a half-century — and when the Nationals host the Atlanta Braves at 1:05 p.m., there will be only two players on Washington’s 26-man roster who were around for the title four years ago: Corbin and center fielder Victor Robles.

On the mound will be Corbin, a 33-year-old in the fifth season of a six-year, $140 million contract that was earned, at least in part, by being an NL All-Star with a 3.15 ERA for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2018. It’s his second consecutive opening day start for a rotation currently missing World Series MVP Stephen Strasburg and top prospect Cade Cavalli because of injuries.

“Look, he’s a veteran guy. He’s done it before. Toward the end of spring, he really threw the ball really well. He really did,” manager Dave Martinez said about Corbin. “We had a lot of conversations about putting everything that’s happened behind him. In the past. Let’s move forward. Let’s start fresh.”

One thing that never changed about Corbin was an ability to be ready for every outing. He made 32 starts in 2017, 33 in 2018 and again in 2019, 11 in 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic led to a 60-game regular season, and 31 apiece in 2021 and 2022.

Those numbers are appreciated by any manager, even if the other numbers associated with Corbin lately were not ideal.

“He is not a very demonstrative

“Sometimes you just have to simplify it, get back to what you’re good at, get back to what you’ve had success at. For me, that’s my slider.”

— NATIONALS LEFT-HANDER PATRICK CORBIN

type of person, but it bothered him. He would be the first one to tell you that he didn’t perform up to his expectations,” pitching coach Jim Hickey said. “But he never pointed fingers or made excuses. And give him credit: He took the ball every five days, and he never, ever backed down. He never wanted out of a ballgame.

“Hopefully things go a little bit better for him this year — and I think they will.”

Corbin’s success was based on a top-notch slider paired with his fastball. He worked this spring on improving both of those pitches — adding more shape to his slider, keeping his fastball down — and mixing in a changeup more frequently.

“When things are going well, sometimes you feel you can do nothing wrong and you just go out there and pitch. And sometimes when things aren’t going well, you might feel good or sometimes not, but you’re always kind of searching or trying to find a way to turn it around,” Corbin said. “Maybe that was the case.”

“We’ve cleaned up some things. Sometimes you just have to simplify it, get back to what you’re good at, get back to what you’ve had success at. For me, that’s my slider.”

For the third year in a row, Atlanta’s opening day starter will be Max Fried, a firsttime MLB All-Star last season who finished second in NL Cy Young Award voting after going 14-7 with a 2.48 ERA, 170 strikeouts and 32 walks in 30 starts.

After an off day, the threegame series will resume Saturday as five-time reigning NL East champ Atlanta, which won the World Series in 2021, gives the ball to hard-throwing righthander Spencer Strider, who starred as a rookie last year. Washington’s scheduled starter is right-hander Josiah Gray.

Sunday’s pitching matchup features a pair of 24-year-old left-handers: Atlanta rookie Jared Shuster and Washington’s MacKenzie Gore, who made his MLB debut last season and appeared in 16 games for the San Diego Padres. Gore was traded in early August but has not pitched for the Nationals in a regular-season game.*