Corbin endures first loss as D-backs' skid hits five
Arizona starters still have not won a game since June 5
NEW YORK -- Usually a start by Patrick Corbin is all the D-backs need to get back in the win column.
Not even Corbin can cure what ails the D-backs on this road trip as he suffered his first defeat of the season in Arizona's 9-1 loss to the Mets on a rainy Tuesday night at Citi Field.
The loss was the fifth in a row for the reeling D-backs, who fell to 1-7 on this 10-game road trip and are now 15-2 when Corbin starts.
"We're not really clicking on anything right now," Corbin said. "Just hopefully we can start putting things together, start getting some wins. We're just not playing good baseball right now, and it's a long season. We've just got to hope we turn it around soon."
It gets no easier for Arizona on Wednesday night when they have to face Mets ace Matt Harvey.
Not even a lengthy rain delay could slow a seventh-inning rally by the Mets on Tuesday.
Through six innings, Corbin and Mets right-hander Jeremy Hefner were locked in a pitchers' duel with the teams knotted at 1.
The lone runs consisted of a pair of solo homers. Anthony Recker hit one for the Mets in the fifth, and Martin Prado answered with one in the seventh.
Heading into the seventh, Corbin had allowed just three hits, but he equaled that total with the first three batters of the frame when David Wright singled, Marlon Byrd doubled and Josh Satin doubled to score Wright.
Andrew Brown then walked, and the umpire crew signaled for the grounds crew to put the tarp on as the rain came down at Citi Field.
Corbin said he was not fatigued in the seventh, and the steady rain that had been falling for several innings was not a factor.
"No, I felt fine. I just left a couple of pitches up," Corbin said. "Things just kind of sped up there, and they got some guys on."
The game was delayed by one hour and 41 minutes, and when it resumed, both starting pitchers were out, and the Mets still had the bases loaded -- this time, with reliever Brad Ziegler on the mound.
Ziegler allowed a Recker ground-ball single through the hole at short to score a run and then an Omar Quintanilla single, this one down the right-field line that scored a pair of runs, and the Mets were off to the races. They sent a total of 11 men to the plate, scoring seven times to take an 8-1 lead.
"I tried to get them to hit ground balls and sometimes they're not at guys," Ziegler said. "If those balls are a little bit to one side or the other, the whole inning might be different and it might still be a 2-1 game."
But it wasn't, and while the D-backs are still in first place in the National League West, that is owed more to the poor play of the teams behind them than what they have done of late. On Tuesday, every team chasing the D-backs lost except for the Dodgers, who, thanks to a recent hot streak, are just 2 1/2 games behind Arizona.
"It's a long season and pretty much every team goes through a stretch like this," Ziegler said. "For us, it's just tough. We want to turn it around. Maybe everybody is just pressing a little too much because the frustration level is just getting higher."
D-backs manager Kirk Gibson said he feels his team is still playing hard, so it does not sound like he's called a team meeting per se, but he said they "talk every day."
A solution, though, appears elusive right now.
"If I had a great answer, then hopefully we wouldn't have lost [five] in a row at this point," Ziegler said. "One of the easiest things to do is to try to simplify things, not try to overcomplicate things. Just kind of go back to the basics and stay within ourselves and do the things we need to do. We're a good enough team when we don't try too hard. We just have to go out and be ourselves. But when we're trying a little too hard and pressing a little bit, everybody gets tight and it all just kind of snowballs at that point."
Corbin (9-1) took the loss, and the streak continued for Arizona starting pitchers. A starter has not recorded a win since Wade Miley beat the Cardinals on June 5, a span of 24 games.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that matches the longest streak in franchise history, which occurred during the team's expansion 1998 season, and is the longest in the Majors since the Rays in 2006.