WASHINGTON -- Patrick Corbin walked off a rain-soaked field with two outs in the fifth inning against the Phillies on Sunday afternoon at Nationals Park to conclude his 10th Major League season. 

The southpaw finished the year 6-19 with a 6.31 ERA after a rain-shortened 8-1, six-inning defeat to Philadelphia. Corbin avoided the undesired 20-loss mark, but he became the first National League pitcher to record 19 losses since the Padres’ Bobby Jones in 2001.

• Box score

In his final outing of 2022, Corbin allowed 10 hits, seven runs and three walks with three strikeouts and one hit batter across 4 2/3 innings. He delivered 63 of his 101 pitches for strikes. This, after skipping his last turn in the rotation because of back spasms.

“It’s hard to assess; it was miserable out there,” said manager Dave Martinez. “I’m not going to lie, it was tough. He threw the ball fairly well early and then got hit a little bit. Then all of a sudden, the field got really wet, kind of sloppy. So just one of those days.”

Coming off his third consecutive losing season, Corbin, 33, is eyeing a turnaround in 2023 and beyond, with two years remaining on his six-year, $140 million contract. Corbin and Martinez assessed Corbin’s 2022 performance and looked ahead to next season.

Pros of the 2022 season
Corbin: “As a starter, always trying to go out there every fifth day is something that I’ve always wanted to do [he made 31 starts]. I don’t think the numbers obviously were great as a team. Obviously, we want to improve on a lot of things. But I finished the season healthy. I know my stuff’s still there. So [I’m] just looking forward to maybe tweaking a couple things for next year.”

Martinez: “The last five or six starts, he threw the ball well for us [1-1, 3.10 ERA in four September starts]. I’m proud of him working all year long to get back to where we felt like he could compete and give us a chance to win the games, and he did that. I’m going to look past this day and know that his back felt good, which is a good sign, and we’ll move on from there.”

Areas of improvement from the 2022 season
Corbin: “Being more consistent. … Just try to be more competitive, throw quality pitches, maybe trying to finish guys when I get ahead of them with two strikes and keeping the ball in the ballpark [27 home runs, tied for fourth in the NL]. Just a combination of a lot. I think overall, it was a tough season, but [I’m] trying to learn from it and move on.”

Martinez: “He struggled in the beginning, as we all know. Then all of a sudden, the last five, six, seven starts, he started understanding what he needs to do, how he needs to pitch. … I thought [pitching coach Jim] Hickey did a great job of getting him to understand that he needs another pitch. He started throwing the changeup a lot more. I thought his slider today, a few of them were really, really, really good, really sharp. He understands now that he needs to keep the ball down to be effective.”

Goals for the 2023 season
Corbin: “Just try to get back to who I know I can be: getting ahead of guys, pitching deep into games, and that’s pretty much it. Like I said, I feel my stuff is still there. Overall, just a strange season. Just trying to look to build off that.”

Martinez: “I’ve got a good feeling that next spring, we’ll get him, he comes in, he’s in shape, he gets ready, that we’ll see a different Corbin -- the Corbin that we saw in ‘19.”