CINCINNATI -- Patrick Corbin has had a rough go of it to begin his 2022 campaign.

Four years into his six-year, $140 million contract, the two-time All Star came into Sunday afternoon’s contest second across Major League Baseball in losses (8), and was coming off a start in which he allowed seven earned runs on a dozen hits and could not make it out of the fifth inning.

Things looked like they were headed in a similar direction in the Nationals’ series finale against Cincinnati, before Corbin eventually found his footing.

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In a 26-pitch first inning, the Reds struck Corbin for three runs on five hits, but that was the most trouble the 32-year-old would face in his six-inning performance. In dire need of a bounceback frame, he needed just 8 pitches in the second, putting his outing back on track.

Corbin proceeded to shut down the Reds lineup through the following four innings, propelling his team to a 5-4 victory in the series finale in Cincinnati. Through those four innings, he allowed just four hits, without giving up a run or walking anybody. He also averaged just over 14 pitches an inning over that span.

“[I] just kind of stuck with our game plan,” Corbin said following the game. “I got in a really good rhythm with [Nationals catcher Keibert] Ruiz and was able to finish the game strong and put up five zeros.”

“We ran into a little hiccup in the first inning, but after that [Corbin] was attacking the zone aggressively,” Ruiz said. “He was throwing his two-seamer very well, as well as his slider, so he did a great job.”

After giving up the slew of hard-hit balls in the first, Corbin stuck to his game plan and continued to go right after the Reds lineup.

“We wanted to be aggressive, attack these guys and make quality pitches,” Corbin said. “They obviously came out and they were swinging, but I didn't want to get away from my game just because of that.”

Manager Dave Martinez showed his confidence in his starter, sticking by him through his early struggles, and it paid off in the later innings as he was able to rest his worn-down bullpen.

“After giving up three, Patrick settled down and gave us some big innings,” Martinez said after the game.

“When I’m mapping this whole thing out and knowing where our bullpen status is, we needed him to eat up innings,” Martinez added. “Once he settled down, he came back out and, I think, threw 12 pitches [in the second inning]. He was really good. His slider had some bite there at the end, his changeup was very effective [and he] kept the ball down, which we wanted him to do. He gave us what we needed.”

While run support has been an issue for Washington starting pitchers at times, Corbin received plenty of it in Sunday’s start. The Nationals struck for two runs in the opening frame on a walk and a pair of doubles, before taking advantage of multiple Reds miscues, which led to two runs in the fourth inning, and tacking on one more in the sixth inning on a 416-foot blast from Maikel Franco.

Martinez highlighted earlier in the series the importance of his pitchers knowing the game isn't over after five innings.

Corbin responded to the request in a big way.

“Our job is to go deep into games and it's tough when you give up a couple early, but you have to kind of forget about it and move forward,” Corbin said. “[My job is to be] able to go out there, just try to pitch as deep as I can, help save some bullpen arms and try to keep us in the game.”