This might be a first for baseball.
Patrick Corbin hardly made it through his start on the mound Wednesday to earn his first win of the season despite suffering what is a suspected venomous bite on his foot suffered two days prior.
The Rangers’ lefty even had difficulty walking around the clubhouse but still managed to allow just one run in 5 1/3 innings in the 3-1 win over the Angels.
“They said something bit me, but I still don’t know what it was,” Corbin said Thursday. “I’ve never had anything like that. It was super weird.”
“I was fortunate to get through yesterday,” he added. “I have some time to recover and be good to go.”
Just hours before the outing, Rangers manager Bruce Bochy told MLB’s Kennedi Landry he wasn’t sure if the two-time All-Star would have even made it to the mound.
“We weren’t even sure if he was going to pitch,” Bochy said. “He had a bite. He could hardly walk when he came into the clubhouse. Some kind of venom got in there. Not sure if it was a spider or what. He was 50/50 on whether he would make the start or not.”
There was swelling around the invisible bite mark Wednesday morning that Corbin said was “tolerable” once his ankle was wrapped.
“It was really bad in the morning,” Corbin said. “Just a really swollen foot. … I wasn’t sure if I was going to throw that morning. My wife was really concerned. I came in early [Wednesday] to get some treatment going and [went] from there.”
Yet, when Corbin woke up Thursday, he was confident he wouldn’t need to miss time despite some soreness.
Corbin, 35, has now had two starts for the Rangers (12-7) and holds a 3.86 ERA and six strikeouts in his 13th year in the majors.
He has allowed four runs (all earned) on 10 hits and three walks.
