Patrick Corbin pitched six innings to earn his 100th career win, and Juan Yepez hit a three-run home run as the Washington Nationals defeated the Colorado Rockies 8-3 on Thursday to win the series.
Luis Garcia Jr. and Jose Tena each had two hits for the Nationals, who have now won three of their last four games.
In his sixth attempt for his milestone win, Corbin (3-12) gave up one run on four hits. He walked one batter and struck out a season-high eight in one of his best performances of the season.
“I’ve been wanting it for a little bit now. It’s taken a little bit,” Corbin said. “You try to go out there every fifth day and give it your best and hope the team wins. Whether you get the win in the column or not, those things happen, so you just try to do your best.”
Corbin had a 14-7 record with a 3.25 ERA for Washington in 2019 and was the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the World Series. Since then, the 35-year-old left-hander has a 30-69 record with a 5.64 ERA as he approaches the end of a six-year, $140 million contract.
“Congratulations to him and his family,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “What I can say about Patrick is, the guy competes. He goes out there every five days, takes the ball, will give us 110 pitches if we ask him to. He’s been awesome.”
Brenton Doyle and Jacob Stallings hit home runs for the Rockies.
Colorado right-hander Cal Quantrill (8-9), making his second start after missing a turn due to a sore forearm, allowed two runs on two hits over five innings.
“It wasn’t like they hit him hard at all,” manager Bud Black said. “Corbin outpitched him and then we couldn’t keep it close out of the bullpen.”
Black managed his 1,160th game, passing Clint Hurdle for the most games managed in Rockies history. Hurdle leads Black in wins, 534-523.
Washington took a 2-0 lead in the third inning. Joey Gallo walked to start the inning and advanced to third on Alex Call’s one-out single. After Call stole second base, James Wood hit a two-out, two-run single to center.
