ARLINGTON -- With great power comes great responsibility.
That applies to a super-powered Spider-Man, but apparently pitching, too.
Rangers starting pitcher Patrick Corbin earned the win in Wednesday night¡¯s matchup against the Angels, allowing just one run in 5 1/3 innings. But the start almost never happened.
"We weren't even sure if he was going to pitch,¡± Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said pregame on Thursday. ¡°He had a bite. He could hardly walk when he came into the clubhouse. Some kind of venom got in there. Not sure if it was a spider or what. He was 50/50 on whether he would make the start or not."
Corbin -- who is staying in former teammate Max Scherzer¡¯s home -- said he was playing outside with his kids on Monday¡¯s team off-day. When he returned inside to cook dinner, he realized his right foot was bothering him a lot.
It was really swollen on Wednesday morning before his start, so he came to the ballpark early in order to figure out what was wrong.
¡°Something bit me, but I still don't know what,¡± Corbin said. ¡°They were able to kind of work it out and just kind of maintain it throughout the day. But it's pretty sore still. It's just kind of just something that¡¯s really strange. I was just fortunate to get through yesterday, and I have some time to recover and be good to go.¡±
And maybe he really did get some powers from the potential spider bite. Corbin¡¯s winning effort on Wednesday was the first time he¡¯s faced 16 or fewer batters through five innings since April 17, 2018, against the Giants, part of a one-hit shutout effort for Corbin as a Diamondback.
All six of his strikeouts came his first time through the Angels order, marking his most K's when facing the opposition¡¯s lineup in a game for the first time through the order since Aug. 3, 2021, against the Phillies (also six strikeouts).
Corbin said on Thursday that his foot is still sore, but they believe he¡¯ll be OK to return to the mound with enough treatment.
¡°It was really bad in the morning, just a very swollen foot,¡± Corbin reiterated. ¡°I definitely wasn't sure if I was gonna throw in the morning. My wife was really concerned. Once I got out there, you just forget about it and compete and worry about it afterwards. ¡ I¡¯ve never had anything like that before. I hope it goes away. I just don't really want to continue to fight through that. They're doing everything they can and I¡¯ll just try to listen to them and try to get it correct.¡±