Patrick Corbin came out for the sixth inning in what is likely his final start as a National on Thursday, and after retiring Freddy Fermin, Corbin got a standing ovation from the crowd at Nats Park as Davey Martinez removed him and he walked off the DC mound that he ruled as part of the 2019 champions.
Grant Paulsen was there with his kids, and dammit, GP is team ‘he deserved it.’
“Highlight of the game today. I thought it was a respectable moment from the fan base, and it was a prideful moment for me,” Grant said to open Thursday’s show. “It was one of those, ‘this is a good look for us’ moments. I saw Bobby Witt Jr. in the Royals dugout pointing towards him looking like they were wondering what it was about, but I’m sure somebody knew what was going on.”
Sure, since the 2019 World Series, Corbin is 33-70, has an ERA that will finish in the mid-5s, and is on pace to lead MLB – not just the NL, all of the league – in losses for the fourth straight year, in hits for the third time in five, and earned runs for the third time in four.
He’s been more punching bag than punchout pitcher, and even as GP admits he’s been part of that blanket party, Corbin is one of just two players left from ’19, and deserved his final props.
“He’s the easiest punching bag in the world, and I've been taking some of the swings. I think we’ve all taken our turns,” GP said. “But if I can be an old man for a second and get on my soapbox, at a time in sports and in life when the little things have never mattered less – showing up, caring about doing your job, punching your time card, like the stuff your dad and curmudgeonly uncle give people guff about – the baseball version of those things is what Patrick Corbin did. He didn't pitch well enough, that's his crime, and I totally get that. For the last five years, he was the worst pitcher in baseball, and if 2019 didn't happen, then we could have a different conversation, but it did.”
Put that on his tombstone, ‘he showed up?’ Maybe, but that’s part of WHY he had such bad stats.
“Everyone says he was the worst pitcher, but there were other pitchers that were worse or equally as bad who never pitched as much as him, so you don't know it,” GP said. “Because they were terrible, the team said kick rocks and they got sent down or got cut. But in Corbin’s case, because of his contract, like Top Gun, they just kept sending him up and I think it's admirable to just kind of keep taking the assignment knowing you can't fly the jet. How lonely a feeling is that, knowing you have lost it and it's not gonna go well and there's gonna be thousands of people watching you, boing and angry at you as you just keep standing on that mound all by yourself?”
“You got cases a month ago or so where Davey Martinez is going, ‘yeah, no matter what, Patrick Corbin's throwing 100 pitches tomorrow because the bullpen's wiped out,” Danny said. “It’s lonely out there, and nobody’s coming to help you, but the level of professionalism I think is important. It was a good example for his teammates. They adore him, and understandably so – and he and his wife made a huge donation to the Nats Youth Academy, with a scoreboard not that’s in his family's name.”
That, and one pretty big trophy we’ll never forget.