In his first 23 starts of the 2017 season, Arizona Diamondbacks left-hander Patrick Corbin allowed five hits or less in only five outings.

It was a trying time for the 28-year-old, who was possibly on his way to another bullpen stint for the second straight season.

Instead of that, Corbin bounced back tremendously, winning five straight starts and giving up five hits or less in all of them for two total runs.

With his ERA dropping from 4.76 to 3.83, perhaps Corbin was back to the pitcher expected to be a very solid No. 3 in the rotation at the start of the 2016 campaign.

On Friday against the San Diego Padres, however, Corbin had those same issues in giving up too much contact that has plagued him at times in 2017.

San Diego had a runner in scoring position in every inning Corbin pitched. A double by left fielder Jose Pirela in the first, a triple by shortstop Erick Aybar in the second and a double by center fielder Manuel Margot in the third all had the Padres threatening early.

While Corbin didn’t give up a run in those innings, it was clear the Padres were seeing the ball well, and the floodgates opened in the fourth.

After retiring the first two hitters, Corbin gave up two singles, a walk, another single, a triple, another walk and another single. All of this added up to six runs for the Padres on five hits.

Corbin wasn’t able to get out of the fifth inning, sacrificing two more runs to make it eight total. He finished with a line of 4.1 innings pitched, allowing eight earned runs, 11 hits and three walks, striking out three.

That fourth inning effectively ended Arizona’s franchise-high 13-game winning streak, but more importantly for the D-backs, added more questions back to the reliability of Corbin for their postseason run.

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