The Nats desperately needed a win tonight, and Patrick Corbin delivered a 6.0 inning no earnie performance although two errors brought in two runs on two-out plays that were booted. Howie Kendrick paced the offense and was a double shy of hitting for a cycle, and Victor Robles had two clutch RISP hits. The Nats bullpen went to Fernando Rodney for the 7th inning and he delivered a 1-2-3 clean inning while protecting a one run lead, and Daniel Hudson threw two innings to close out the game for a save in a game that finished at a final score of 6-2.
For Corbin, this win was some vindication after he took a tough loss against the Cardinals in April when he was also victimized by the defense behind him. This time Corbin bent but did not break. He got some key outs, and the only controversy was that Corbin was not pulled with a pitch count of 98 in the 5th inning as the Nats had two runners on base in the top of the 6th inning, and stand-in manager Chip Hale did not go to a pinch-hitter. Corbin struggled in the 6th inning and put two runners on-base and one scored on a wide throw on a steal that Asdrubal Cabrera could not glove.
The Nats offense got a lot of breaks in this game including a Kendrick triple that hit off of the Cardinals centerfielders’ glove and that play resulted in the first run of the game. The Cardinals did get some luck, and with two runners on base, a very wild pitch bounced off of the brick wall behind the plate and rebounded back to Yadier Molina who threw out Howie Kendrick at 3rd base. The Nats had 12 hits and 4 walks, but only went 3-12 in RISP spots.
Tomorrow afternoon, these two teams have a 1pm game for their season finale. With the Cubs loss and the Brewers win tonight, the Washington Nationals lead both teams by 1½ games in the Wild Card race.
