Trying to salvage their last game of the series against the Washington Nationals, youngsters Patrick Corbin and Paul Goldschmidt led the Diamondbacks rally. Corbin did an outstanding job keeping the Nationals hitters off balance, and Paul Goldschmidt just played intelligent baseball. This bodes very well for the Diamondbacks future, as Corbin just turned 23, and Goldschmidt is only 24.
After the game, it was obvious that Manager Kirk Gibson was very pleased with the performance of starting pitcher Patrick Corbin. He said, "Patrick was outstanding, obviously, he pitched seven great innings for us. His pitch count was extremely low all the way through." Corbin finished the afternoon striking out seven batters, while giving up only two runs off of four hits. In his last three outings, Corbin has pitched 19 innings, and has only given up 12 hits and four runs, while striking out 19 batters. Gibson said, "His strike ratio right from the get go was very efficient," which led Corbin to getting ahead in the count, and helped him keep the Nationals hitters off-balance throughout most of the game. After Bryce Harper singled in the first inning, Corbin retired 16 Nationals hitters in a row before finally giving up two runs in the seventh inning. Gibson went on to say that Corbin shut a very good team down. When Manager Kirk Gibson said, "He's got it all," you can't get much higher praise than that, especially for a 23-year old.
When asked what led to his success in the game, Corbin said he "just got ahead of the guys today with my fastball," and that he was able to keep it down in the zone. He praised Miguel Montero for calling a great game, and also said, "I felt really good today." When Corbin was reminded that he had zero walks in the seven innings he pitched, he was quick to say, "That definitely helps too."
Gibson has the same opinion towards Paul Goldschmidt as he does Corbin. Goldschmidt, who is playing his first full season in the major leagues, is already enjoying enormous success. Goldschmidt has a .299 average so far this season, with 34 doubles and 16 home runs. Gibson said that Goldschmidt works hard every day to study the opposing pitcher, and work on his game, both offensively and defensively. He doesn't feel that Goldschmidt gets bogged down with too much information, and said that Goldschmidt knows how to process information, and the way he uses it "is very impressive." When Goldschmidt scored in the second inning, Gibson said that "he really set the tone for us early, got us on the board." That's a very good sign when one of your youngest players on the team is setting the tone for how to win baseball games.
Goldschmidt talked about the series and said, "We had our chances yesterday, and even in the first game." He was quick to say that Corbin did a great job to help in today's win, and that down the stretch "we need to play well." Goldschmidt ended the game two for four, scoring two runs, with a double, and three RBI's.
The Diamondbacks will get a much deserved day off tomorrow before heading out to play against the St. Louis Cardinals. Having two young players such as Patrick Corbin and Paul Goldschmidt showing success at the major league level gives the Arizona Diamondbacks hope towards making the playoffs this year, and into the future.