Patrick Corbin rediscovers himself, quiets the Mets in a 7-1 Nats win

On Aug. 6 against Philadelphia, he couldn’t get out of the first inning; two starts earlier he couldn’t do the same at the Los Angeles Dodgers. His ERA stood at 7.02. Now it is a slightly better 6.28.

“We’ve worked diligently with him, and then he’s doing exactly what we thought he could do,” Manager Dave Martinez said. “A lot of it had to do with just not giving up on him. He’s going to be here for another year or so. So we got to continue to work, continue to get him better.”

Saturday presented Corbin’s toughest test yet. The Mets entered 39½ games ahead of Washington in the standings. And opposite of him on the mound was Max Scherzer — his former teammate and arguably the greatest pitcher in Nationals’ history — looking for his 200th career win.

“It was a packed stadium out there. You get some energy,” Corbin said. “When I’m in between the lines, I just like to compete and try to give us the best chance to win. No matter what our record is, that’s my job: to go out there and do the best I can.”

Luis García didn’t waste much time against Scherzer, launching the first pitch he saw — a 94-mph fastball — into the right field seats at 108 mph to give Washington a 1-0 lead. Scherzer pitched five innings, allowing three hits before exiting with fatigue in his left side.

The Mets responded in the third inning when Eduardo Escobar hit a solo shot off Corbin to tie the game. The pitch was a sinker down in the zone that Escobar leaned over for and poked over the wall in left field.

But after allowing the home run, Corbin didn’t abandon the pitch. In fact, he relied on it more heavily the rest of his outing. Corbin threw the pitch 60 times out of his 85 total pitches, and many of the offerings were up in the zone, which typically isn’t where Corbin throws it. His slider, which has been a staple in his arsenal most of his career, was thrown only 13 times the whole game.

This season Corbin has relied on a mix of his sinker (thrown roughly 40.5 percent of the time) and slider (30.9 percent). He mixes in a four-seam fastball (20.5 percent) and occasionally will show a change-up.

The Mets (85-49) whiffed just twice on 31 swings at his sinker; they fouled off 13 of those pitches and put another 16 in play. But the Mets weren’t able to get much solid contact off Corbin, who allowed only three hits. Four of Corbin’s strikeouts were on the sinker — all of them looking.

“He was awesome,” Martinez said. “He didn’t really need to use his slider that much. He threw some really good change-ups, but his sinker was working tremendously.”

In his past four starts, Corbin has allowed just eight earned runs. In each of his past three starts, he has allowed two runs or fewer. Corbin might have found an answer that can help him turn around his career in Washington. For a night, he was able to silence one of baseball’s best lineups.

How did Washington score its late insurance runs? Lane Thomas hit a solo home run — his 15th of the season — in the eighth inning off Adam Ottavino to give Washington a 2-1 lead. He passed Josh Bell for second most this season as a National. He trails only Juan Soto, who hit 21 this year while with Washington.

Washington then scored five runs in the ninth. Josh Palacios hit an RBI bloop single over the head of Jeff McNeil with the infield playing in. CJ Abrams singled with the bases loaded to drive in two and put runners on the corners. Abrams nearly got picked off at first base, but when the Mets threw the ball away, Ildemaro Vargas scored from third. Thomas singled in the ensuing at-bat to score Abrams.

Where did César Hernández played in the field? He started in left field, the first time he played in the outfield since his rookie year in 2013. He played 22 games in center field that season for the Philadelphia Phillies but has since played in the infield — until Saturday.

Hernández — who has taken a lesser role since the team acquired Abrams — had the most experience of anyone against Scherzer, entering Saturday 11 for 54 against him in his career. He finished the game 1 for 3.

What’s the latest on Nelson Cruz? Cruz didn’t start at designated hitter — he suffered a knee contusion Friday after fouling a baseball off his left knee and exited the game. Martinez said after the game that he was day-to-day and Cruz woke up feeling better but not well enough to play.