Nationals’ home schedule ends with another clunker from Patrick Corbin

Corbin slogged through Sunday’s 8-1 loss against the Philadelphia Phillies, allowing seven runs on 10 hits to move his ERA up to 6.31. The game lasted six innings before it was called with conditions getting worse.

“The cleats were just kind of filling up a little bit and just felt really rotational today,” Corbin said. “But just tough on both sides, but it is what it is.”

Washington earned its 104th loss – the most since the team moved to D.C. – and finished a dismal 26-55 at home this year. And Corbin picked up his majors-leading 19th loss, a figure that could have been higher if not for back spasms that pulled him out of his last start and forced him to miss a turn in the rotation.

The Phillies were desperate to hit and push themselves closer to a spot in the playoffs, as they battle the Milwaukee Brewers for the final NL wild-card spot.

Philadelphia loaded the bases in the second inning when Corbin walked Nick Castellanos with one out and allowed back-to-back singles. Bryson Stott hit into what could have been an inning-ending double play, but the turn between Luis García and CJ Abrams wasn’t quick enough, and the Phillies jumped ahead 1-0. They added three more runs in the fourth when Stott laced a two-run double and then scored on a single by Bryce Harper.

Corbin again tried to work his way through a bases-loaded jam, this time in the fifth, but with little success. Kyle Schwarber poked a bases-clearing single, and he would be the final batter Corbin faced.

Both teams added a run in the sixth.

Corbin’s struggles served as a microcosm of another difficult season for him. He has allowed more hits (210) and earned runs (107) than any other pitcher. He had looked decent of late, finishing September with a 3.10 ERA in 20 1/3 innings pitched.

But his positive stretches have always been met with regressions. Corbin said after the game that he knows he still has the stuff to be the pitcher he was before. And Manager Dave Martinez is still preaching faith, too.

“I got a good feeling that next spring he comes in, he’s in shape, we’ll get him ready, that we’ll see a different Corbin,” Martinez said. “The Corbin that we saw in ’19.”

Martinez has repeatedly said Corbin needs to keep the ball down in the zone, and the left-hander threw sinkers on 65 of his 101 pitches Sunday. Though Martinez has maintained Corbin will be in the rotation next year, this season has only created further doubt about his future.

– How bad were the conditions Sunday?

Poor. The warning track had large puddles for most of the game. The Nationals’ grounds crew put drying solution on the field from the fourth inning on.

Outfielders were slow to chase after balls, and base runners pulled up early instead of trying to take the extra base. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins misplayed a groundball from Abrams and slipped trying to chase it. The hit was ruled a double by the official scorer “due to field conditions.”

– Who will start for the Nationals in the final week of the season?

Cory Abbott, Paolo Espino and Erick Fedde will start the final three games of the season against the New York Mets, who are fighting for the NL East crown.

The set rotation means Josiah Gray will not make another start this season. Gray, in his first full season in the majors, finished with a 7-10 record and a 5.02 ERA. His final start of the year came against the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday, when he allowed two hits over six innings and produced one of his most efficient starts of the year.

Martinez said his goal was for Gray to throw 130 innings this year, though Gray convinced him to extend that total to 150. Gray threw a career-high 148 2/3, and the team managed his innings down the stretch by spacing out his starts.