Nationals' Patrick Corbin: Second start coming Thursday

Corbin is scheduled to make his second Grapefruit League start Thursday versus the Cardinals, Mark Zuckerman of MASNSports.com reports.

Corbin struck out four of the nine batters he faced Saturday in the Nationals' spring opener against the Astros, but he was touched up for two earned runs on three hits (two singles, one triple) and also conceded a stolen base. At this stage of Corbin's career, spring training is more about building innings than turning in quality results, but even if the 34-year-old lefty is lights out in his subsequent Grapefruit League outings, fantasy players should have some degree of skepticism about him carrying over any success into the regular season. Over each of his last three campaigns in Washington, Corbin has taken at least 31 starts in every season, but he hasn't turned in an ERA better than 5.20 or a WHIP lower than 1.47 and has seen his strikeout percentage decline in each successive year.