Rangers' Corbin beat Angels after being bitten by venomous critter

Patrick Corbin's cutter wasn't the only thing that had a bit more bite to it Wednesday.

Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy revealed Thursday that the veteran left-hander had to battle through a bizarre injury to pitch his team to victory over the Los Angeles Angels. Corbin was nearly scratched from the start because of the after-effects of being bitten by some kind of venomous creature a few days earlier.

"We weren't even sure if he was going to pitch," Bochy said ahead of Thursday's series finale, according to Kennedi Landry of MLB.com. "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."

Whatever the bug or arachnoid was ultimately couldn't stop Corbin from doing his thing. The 35-year-old mowed down the Angels, allowing one run on five hits while striking out six over 5 1/3 innings to earn his first win of the season.

"They were able to kind of work it out and just kind of maintain it through out the day. But it's pretty sore still," Corbin said. "It's just kind of just something that's really strange. I was just fortunate to get through yesterday, and I have some time to recover and be good to go."

Though Corbin's been one of the worst pitchers in baseball over the last four seasons, durability has remained a strong suit. He made at least 31 starts in each of his last four campaigns with the Washington Nationals. Outside of one illness-related stint in 2021, Corbin hasn't spent a day on the injured list since he recovered from Tommy John surgery in July 2015.

The New York native joined Texas on a one-year contract in late March after injuries ravaged the Rangers' rotation during spring training. He owns a 3.86 ERA and 1.39 WHIP with six strikeouts and three walks over his first two starts with the Rangers.