Corbin weathers delay with 7 strong frames, but Nats get no-hit?

WASHINGTON -- Patrick Corbin could not wait to return to the mound after a spontaneous downpour interrupted and delayed his outing five batters into Thursday afternoon’s series finale. The Nationals starter was the first player jogging back onto the field after 1 hour and 16 minutes, and he began to warm up.

The southpaw matched a season-high seven innings to give the Nats the length that they needed, but Padres ace Dylan Cease no-hit Washington’s offense in a 3-0 loss at Nationals Park.

“We watched [Cease] before they came into this series and I said, ‘This guy, his stuff is on. It will be tough,’” manager Dave Martinez said. “On the flip side, I will give a lot of credit to Corbin. He was amazing, he was.”

Washington was held to zero hits for the second time in franchise history. The last time the Nats were held to zero hits was on Aug. 8, 2023, against then-Phillies starter Michael Lorenzen.

Corbin faced five batters and had begun Padres shortstop Ha-Seong Kim’s at-bat before the delay, leaving bases loaded with two outs.

“Things like that happen,” Corbin said. “You try to keep warm and don’t know how long the weather is going to be there. So you try to stay hot and it feels good coming back out. [It was] just a tough situation there after throwing a pitch already, being behind the count. … It’s not ideal, but you try to keep loose and get out there and do your job.”

When the game resumed, the battle with Kim continued. Corbin tried to get himself out of the jam, but was unsuccessful. After a nine-pitch at-bat, Kim emerged victorious with a bases-clearing single to give the Padres a 3-0 lead.

The 35-year-old Corbin put the frame behind him and cruised through the rest of his outing. He dealt 109 pitches (71 strikes) in tying his season high for innings -- a feat which he completed a month ago against the Padres on June 24.

“Patrick, you give him the ball and he doesn’t want to come out of the game,” Martinez said. “He’s going to give you as many innings and try to get as many outs as he can.”

The Los Angeles native limited the Padres to three runs, but the Nationals’ offense simply could not find an answer to Cease’s arsenal.

“Today, [Cease] had both breaking balls, great shape, and we knew that coming in, but it was really good so he kept our hitters off-balance all game,” Martinez said. “I watched him all game and he never really gave us much to hit.”

“He kind of picks around the plate,” Nats right fielder Lane Thomas said. “He threw a few pitches that I feel I could’ve hit, but he painted [the corners] against me. I felt like I worked a couple of good at-bats.”

There were a few instances where the Nationals got a few swings with good contact off the bat. Juan Yepez, whose 15-game hit streak was snapped in the loss, sent a ball into the outfield toward Padres second baseman Xander Bogaerts. The ball slid out of Bogaerts’ glove, which would have resulted in a hit, but teammate Jackson Merrill was right there to record the out.

CJ Abrams was also able to get some contact off some fastballs, which were hit hard, but “not hard enough.”

Being on the no-hit side of history is not ideal. However, the Nationals will simply tip their caps to Cease and move on to their upcoming road trip to St. Louis and Arizona.

“He was good. So let’s come back tomorrow. We had a chance to do something special, but we went 3-3 [on the homestand after sweeping the Reds],” Martinez said. “So let’s get back on the road and go on tomorrow. There’s nothing we can do about that. We could look back all we want, but it won’t do us any good.”