Patrick Corbin flashed the form that made him a two-time All-Star, pitching seven scoreless innings as the Washington Nationals defeated the host Seattle Mariners 4-1 Wednesday afternoon

Corbin (5-9), a left-hander who made the National League’s All-Star team in 2013 and 2018 while with Arizona, allowed five hits, didn’t issue a base on balls and struck out a season-high nine batters.

Washington’s Hunter Harvey struck out two in the ninth for his sixth save of the season.

Keibert Ruiz went 2 for 3 with two RBIs for the Nationals, who won for the fourth time in their past five games

Jose Caballero homered for Seattle, which has lost six of nine games and dropped its third straight series. Tom Murphy went 3 for 3 and Caballero was 2 for 3, with Eugenio Suarez accounting for Seattle’s other hit.

The Nationals jumped on Mariners right-hander Logan Gilbert (5-5) early, scoring three times in the first inning as the first four batters reached base

Lane Thomas led off with an infield hit and Luis Garcia lined a single to right field. Jeimer Candelario doubled to right to score Thomas and Ruiz grounded a two-run single to center to make it 3-0.

The score remained that way until the sixth, when Ruiz led off by lining a single to center. Dominic Smith doubled down the right-field line, with Ruiz ruled out at the plate for going out of the baseline while trying to avoid a tag by Murphy, the Mariners catcher. Nationals manager Dave Martinez argued the call and was ejected by home-plate umpire Derek Thomas

Once the game resumed, Ildemaro Vargas lined a double into the left-field corner to score Smith and increase the lead to 4-0.

Gilbert went six innings and allowed four runs on eight hits. The right-hander walked two and struck out four.

Caballero greeted Nationals reliever Amos Willingham by lining a home run over the left-field wall leading off the eighth inning for the Mariners‘ lone run

–Field Level Media