D2 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28 , 2019
BY JESSE DOUGHERTY
Patrick Corbin had just held the
Pittsburgh Pirates scoreless for eight
innings and the Washington Nationals
had won, but the left-handed starter
was thinking about how little success
he has had at the plate this year.
“I think I’m close,” he said with a
smile, knowing it was silly to lament
offensive results when his pitching had
been so good. “I just need to pull the
ball a little more.”
“You can’t hit,” reliever Daniel
Hudson chimed in from the next locker
at PNC Park last Wednesday.
“What?” Corbin asked, swiveling his
head around.
“You. Can’t. Hit,” Hudson shot back,
stretching out every word. They first
played together with the Arizona
Diamondbacks a few years back.
Needling is normal.
“Yeah, I can,” Corbin answered, a bit
under his breath, before heading
toward the shower. “I just need to pull
the ball more.”
Heading into Tuesday’s game
against the Baltimore Orioles,
Nationals pitchers as a whole have
been below average at the plate this
season. That may be surprising given
Stephen Strasburg’s summer — which
includes three hits, five RBI and a
home run in one July game — or Aníbal
Sánchez collecting two singles at
Wrigley Field on Friday. Automatic
outs are a lot different than marginal
contributions. And because pitchers
are typically the former, the latter
always stands out.
But the rotation entered Tuesday
hitting .125 this season, eight points
below average, and is lagging behind
its final numbers from last season.
Corbin, for one, had a career-worst .077
batting average in 59 plate
appearances. He has never finished aseason below .111. He came into the
year with two offensive goals — hit his
first home run and steal his first base —
but now he is just focused on collecting
a few hits. He knocked one against the
Pirates last week, an RBI double to
right, yet that isn’t enough. There is a
part of him that wants, so badly, to
succeed at the plate, even with 140
strikeouts (and counting) in 344 career
at-bats. He is still not deterred.
Maybe it’s because so little is
expected of him in the batter’s box. Or
maybe Corbin is making up for lost
time.
The 30-year-old didn’t try out for
baseball until his junior year of high
school, when a few friends finally
convinced him. He was a natural
athlete — a sharpshooter in basketball,
a middle school quarterback, the kind
of kid who was always outside — and
pitching came quickly. He had a
fastball that moved and learned to use
a slider grip from his father. He wound
up never losing a high school game,
good for a 14-0 record over the course
of two seasons, but that came with a
consequence: Kevin Rockwell, the head
coach at Cicero-North Syracuse High in
central New York, rarely let Corbin hit.
“He would crush the ball over the
fence in batting practice because he
was one of our best players,” said Jim
Ilardi, Rockwell’s top assistant while
Corbin played. “But Rockwell was
afraid he would get hurt. He was too
valuable to the team. So he didn’t get to
hit in games.”
Corbin, always humble, remembersit differently. He says he didn’t hit
because CNS had a full lineup of good
players. They competed for a state title.
His bat wasn’t needed. But it made him
jealous of his high school teammates, if
only playfully, and led to the one regret
of his baseball career: Corbin wishes he
had tried a position — not instead of
pitching, but just to test himself and
get a few more at-bats. He figured it
would have been first base, given his
height, or one of the corner outfield
spots. This past spring, while sitting at
a picnic table in West Palm Beach, Fla.,
he leaned back and sighed: “I love
pitching. But it’s sort of crazy to me
that I’ve never done anything else.”
He recalls three high school at-bats,
all in his junior year, but nothing more
than that. Then he did two years of
junior college, got drafted by the Los
Angeles Angels in the second round in
2009 and devoted his life to a fastball-
slider combination that has made him
a two-time all-star. Corbin doesn’t
regret that part, not even a little, but
still feels a particular rush when he
walks to the plate.
Call it suppressed competitiveness.
This is the guy who, a day after his
wedding this past winter, was beating
friends and family in basketball at his
home in Phoenix.
He built a small mini golf course in
the same backyard, equipped with six
tricky holes, and spent hours
mastering the angles. He often
organizes pools in the Nationals
clubhouse — March Madness brackets,
Masters predictions, you name it — and
reads the sheets at his locker. He likes
to win, plain and simple, and hitting is
no different.
He still itches to smack the home run
he never got a chance to as a teenager.
And now he just wants to prove Daniel
Hudson wrong.
[email protected]QUOTABLE
“I was not in a good
place. Football was
bringing me down. I
didn’t like it. And I was
losing that joy in life.”
ROB GRONKOWSKI,
former Patriots tight end, discussing
his retirement during an event in
which he pushed for leagues to allow
the use of Cannabidiol products.NATIONALSWorking to get in the swing
D.C. SPORTS BOGBY SCOTT ALLEN
Mike Thomas, who was named
the NFL’s offensive rookie of the
year as a running back for the
Washington Redskins in 1975 and
made the Pro Bowl the next sea-
son, died Friday in a Houston hos-
pital after a long illness. He was
66.
“He loved life, he loved people,
he loved the Redskins, and he
loved reliving the years that he
was there, which brought him a lot
of joy,” Thomas’s wife, Sylvia Wilk-
erson Thomas, said in a telephone
interview.
Thomas was born in Greenville,
Tex., and was a three-sport star at
Greenville High before earning a
football scholarship at the Univer-
sity of Oklahoma. The 5-foot-11,
190-pound back transferred to
UNLV after his sophomore season
and ended his college career as the
Rebels’ all-time leading rusher.
After Thomas rushed for 1,408
yards and 17 touchdowns as a sen-
ior, the Redskins used their high-
est pick — a fifth-round selection
— on him in the 1975 draft.
Thomas had only two yards in
his pro debut, but it didn’t take
him long to earn a starting role. In
Week 4, he ran for 100 yards and
two touchdowns in a win over the
St. Louis Cardinals. He finished
with a team-high 919 yards and
four scores and had 40 catches for
483 yards and three more touch-
downs, edging Falcons quarter-
back Steve Bartkowski for offen-
sive player of the year honors.
The Redskins signed fullback
John Riggins and running back
Calvin Hill the following offsea-
son, but Thomas remained the
star of the backfield. He started 12
games, rushing for 1,101 yards and
five touchdowns, including a
31-carry, 195-yard performance
against the Cardinals in Week 10.
Thomas also had 28 catches for
290 yards and four touchdowns
and was named to the Pro Bowl.
In May 1979, Redskins general
manager Bobby Beathard traded
Thomas to the San Diego Chargers
for a mid-round draft pick.
“You’ll be liked by some and not
by others in life,” Thomas, who
missed three games in 1978 with a
heel injury, told The Washington
Post. “I’m just fortunate that
somewhere gave me a chance to
play again.”
Thomas played two years in San
Diego. After retiring from the
NFL, he worked in the oil industry.
The father of five also reconnected
with Sylvia, his high school sweet-
heart, and the two celebrated 32
years of marriage in June.
“He loved the Redskins and
playing for the Redskins,” Sylvia
Thomas said. “He had the NFL TV
package so he could see all the
games. I’d say, ‘Which game are
you watching?’ And he’d say, ‘I’m
watching all of them.’ The love of
the game was always there.”
There will be a memorial serv-
ice for Thomas on Saturday in
Houston. Another service is
scheduled for Sept. 6 in Greenville.
[email protected]Redskins
Pro Bowler
Thomas
dies at 66
TELEVISION AND RADIO
MLB
2 p.m. St. Louis at Milwaukee » MLB Network
5 p.m. New York Yankees at Seattle (joined in progress) » MLB Network
7 p.m. Baltimore at Washington » MASN, MASN2, WJFK (106.7 FM), WFED (1500 AM),
WTEM (980 AM)
8 p.m. Tampa Bay at Houston » MLB Network
11 p.m. Los Angeles Dodgers at San Diego (joined in progress) » MLB Network
TENNIS
Noon U.S. Open, second round » ESPN
SOCCER
1 p.m. French Ligue 1: Saint-Etienne at Lille » beIN Sports
3 p.m. UEFA Champions League playoff round, second leg: APOEL at Ajax » TNT
3 p.m. French Ligue 1: Olympique Marseille at Nice » beIN Sports
6:15 p.m. Copa Libertadores quarterfinals, second leg: LDU Quito at Boca Juniors »
beIN Sports
8:30 p.m. Copa Libertadores quarterfinals, second leg: Flamengo at Internacional »
beIN Sports
10 p.m. Mexican Liga MX: Cruz Azul at Tijuana » Fox Sports 1
WOMEN’S COLLEGE SOCCER
5 p.m. Santa Clara at Wake Forest » ACC Network
7 p.m. Georgetown at Duke » ACC NetworkBY MATT BONESTEEL
At this early stage in the negoti-
ations over a new NFL collective
bargaining agreement, one of the
bigger sticking points has been the
length of the season. Team owners
would like to make it longer in
some way in their near-constant
search for more revenue and seem
to be willing to sacrifice some of
the preseason to get there. The
players would rather not subject
their bodies to the added punish-
ment that extra games would
entail.
When Indianapolis Colts quar-
terback Andrew Luck announced
his shocking retirement, citing the
negative effects the game has had
on his body, the players’ resolve to
keep the season’s length at 16
games only deepened.
“The players, however, don’t ap-
pear to be as interested in regular
season expansion, and one source
familiar with the talks said An-
drew Luck’s retirement an-
nouncement Saturday night has
had an effect on their mind-set,”
ESPN’s Dan Graziano wrote Tues-
day morning. “Players already
were disinclined to consider an
expansion of the season, and days
after one of the game’s brightest
stars walked away at age 29 be-
cause of the physical toll he sus-
tained playing the game, the play-
ers’ appetite for more games is
even lower.”
Luck missed more than half of
the 2015 season and all of the 2017
season with a host of maladies and
had been dealing with a leg injury
for much of the offseason before
announcing his retirement Satur-
day night.
According to Graziano and oth-
ers, NFL officials and team owners
wanted an agreement on a new
CBA in place before the start of the
2019 season, though prospects for
that seem dim with only eight days
remaining before the Green Bay
Packers and Chicago Bears kick
things off. (Players and owners
were scheduled to continue talks
in Chicago on Tuesday.)
The current deal does not ex-
pire until after next season, mean-
ing there’s still time left to work
out the details and give both sides
time to process the aftershocks of
Luck’s announcement.
[email protected]
PRO FOOTBALL
Luck’s exit
could stall
schedule
expansion
KEITH SRAKOCIC/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nationals left-hander Patrick Corbin entered Tuesday’s game batting a career-low .077 and said he is capable of better.Corbin thrives on the mound,
but improving at the plate
keeps left-hander motivatedwashingtonpost.com/sports
PRO BASKETBALL
Lin signs with team
from Chinese league
The NBA may have given up on
him, as Jeremy Lin says, but he is
taking another shot at basketball,
signing with the Beijing
Shougang Ducks of the Chinese
Basketball Association.
The move is bound to lift the
spirits of the free agent who
touched off Linsanity during his
time with the New York Knicks
and was part of the Toronto
Raptors team that won the NBA
title in June.
He has been passed over by
teams since free agency began
this summer and confessed last
month that he had hit “rock
bottom” because “the NBA has
kind of given up on me.”
In a statement, the Ducks said
the team is in the process of
working with the league to get
Lin’s registration paperwork
approved, a procedural move. The
Ducks have won three league
titles in the past few years, led by
Stephon Marbury, who is now
coaching the Ducks’ top rival in
Beijing.
Lin, 31, is best remembered for
his Linsanity performances in
early 2012.
The son of Taiwanese
immigrants, Lin is the first Asian
American to win an NBA title, but
he averaged 3.4 minutes in the
playoffs and played only one
minute in the Raptors’ six-game
victory over Golden State.
— Cindy Boren
Brittney Griner had 29 points
and 14 rebounds, Leilani
Mitchell added a career-high 29
points, and Phoenix beat the New
York Liberty, 95-82, moving the
Mercury a step closer to the
WNBA playoffs....
Sylvia Fowles had a season-
high 25 points and 12 rebounds,
moving into third on the career
rebounding list, and the
Minnesota Lynx beat the Chicago
Sky, 93-85, in Minneapolis to
claim a ninth straight playoff
berth....
Teaira McCowan had 24
points, 17 rebounds and five
blocks to lead the Indiana Fever
past the Las Vegas Aces, 86-71, in
Indianapolis.GOLF
A season that began with Tiger
Woods celebrating a fifth Masters
title ended with a fifth surgery on
his left knee.
This one wasn’t serious.
Woods said on Twitter he had
arthroscopic surgery last week torepair what he described as
minor cartilage damage. In a
statement Woods released on
social media, orthopedic surgeon
Vern Cooley said he looked at the
rest of the knee and found no
additional problems.
“I’m walking now and hope to
resume practice in the next few
weeks,” Woods said, adding that
he looked forward to traveling to
Japan in October for a Skins
Game exhibition and the ZoZo
Championship on Oct. 24-27.
Mark Steinberg, Woods’s
agent at Excel Sports, described
the knee as little more than
“irritating.”SOCCER
Pity Martínez scored a goal
and set up an own goal by
Minnesota with a nifty pass,
leading shorthanded Atlanta
United to another trophy with a
2-1 victory in the final of the U.S.
Open Cup in Atlanta.
Atlanta finished the game with
10 players after Leandro
González Pírez received a red
card, holding off Minnesota
United’s relentless pressure in the
closing minutes.
Michael Boxall had a chance
to tie it but sent the ball over the
crossbar with a shot from right in
front.In a matchup of teams that
entered MLS together as
expansion franchises in 2017,
Atlanta United celebrated its
third title in less than a year. It
won the MLS Cup this past
December and added the
Campeones Cup with a victory
over Mexican champion Club
América two weeks ago....
Old rivals Red Star Belgrade
and Dinamo Zagreb advanced to
the Champions League group
stage after making it through
their playoff second-leg games.
Red Star, which won the
European Cup in 1991 as the old
Yugoslav national league broke
up, went through on away goals
after a 1-1 draw with visiting
Young Boys made the aggregate
score 3-3.
Dinamo advanced, 3-1, on
aggregate by drawing, 1-1, at
Rosenborg.
Olympiakos also advanced,
winning, 2-1, at Krasnodar for a
6-1 aggregate victory....
Move over Derby County, the
worst streak for games without a
win now belongs to a Mexican
team.
Veracruz lost, 5-0, to Queretaro
in the seventh round of the
Apertura tournament to extend
its winless run to 33 games,
breaking the tie with the Englishclub, which set the previous mark
in the 2007-08 season....
Premier League teams Crystal
Palace and Norwich paid the
price for heavily rotating their
lineups for the second round of
the English League Cup and were
eliminated by fourth-tier
opponents.
Three days after beating
Manchester United at Old
Trafford, Palace lost, 5-4, on
penalties to Colchester — a team
sitting 85 places down the English
soccer pyramid — after a 0-0 drawin 90 minutes.
Norwich rested its top players,
including Teemu Pukki, the
scorer of five goals in three
Premier League games this
season, and lost, 1-0, at Crawley
Town....
A spectacular strike from
Arnaud Souquet gave host
Montpellier a 1-0 win over 10-
man Lyon, ending its opponent’s
winning start to the new French
season.
— From news services
and staff reports