Texas
Who is Patrick Corbin? 10 things to know about the Texas Rangers’ starting pitcher
Patrick Corbin wasn’t on Texas Rangers fans’ radars until well into spring training in 2025, but he’s become a consistent piece on the rotation so far this season.
Corbin was brought to Texas to provide pitching depth in the starting rotation, and he has done just that, even with short notice.
Here are 10 things to know about Corbin.
1. The basics
Name: Patrick Alan Corbin
Born: July 19, 1989
Ht.: 6-4 Wt.: 225 lb
Hometown: Clay, New York
College: Chipola College
Draft: 2nd round, 2009 (Los Angeles Angels)
2. Late to the party in Texas
As mentioned above, Corbin signed with the Rangers on March 18, 2025 when Texas’ starting rotation was hit with significant injuries to Jon Gray and Cody Bradford during spring training.
Corbin was brought in to eat innings for a Rangers rotation that needed depth in a bad way. He had the 15th most innings in baseball over the previous four seasons, albeit with ugly numbers.
Through his first 10 starts with the Rangers, Corbin has been a pleasant surprise with a 3.71 ERA in 53 1/3 innings with 41 strikeouts and 18 walks. Even if he reverts to his previous struggles before coming to Texas, he has given the Rangers everything they could have asked for in his first couple of months with the team while Gray and Bradford are on the mend.
3. A historic win
Corbin was a part of the 2019 Nationals team that topped the Astros in the World Series.
He capped that season with as memorable a win as a major league pitcher could have, as he was the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the 2019 World Series when the Nationals beat the Astros in Houston.
Corbin pitched three scoreless, two-hit innings in relief of Max Scherzer in that Game 7. He entered the game in the sixth inning with Washington down 2-0, but the Nationals had a 4-2 lead when he finished his scoreless eighth inning, which put him in line for the historic win
In that playoff run, which is the only year Corbin has pitched in the playoffs, he had a 5.79 ERA in 23 1/3 innings. He appeared in eight games and made three starts for Washington during those playoffs.
4. Injury history
Corbin was set to be the Diamondbacks’ opening day starter in 2014, but he felt arm tightness during a spring training start.
It was later recealed he has an injury to his ulnar collateral ligament and, like many pitchers in modern baseball, Corbin underwent Tommy John surgery and missed the whole 2014 season. He returned to Arizona’s rotation on July 4, 2015.
5. Late bloomer
He didn’t join his Cicero-North Syracuse High School baseball team until his junior year, according to a story in The New York Post. Corbin’s friends ultimately convinced him to try out.
“It was the second day of tryouts and he showed up in the stretch line in jeans,” his high school coach Kevin Rockwell said. “I asked if he was a righty or a lefty and if he could hit. He said he couldn’t hit, but he was a lefty and could throw hard, ‘But I have no idea where it’s going.’ ”
In his senior year, he had an 8-0 record and allowed just 33 hits and 16 runs in 47 innings. Corbin finished his career with a 14-0 record and 139 strikeouts.
6. Got paid
Corbin hit free agency following a 2018 All-Star campaign with the Diamondbacks and cashed in big-time.
The Nationals signed Corbin, who was 29 years old at the time, to a six-year, $140 million contract ahead of the 2019 season.
7. Two-time All-Star
Corbin made two All-Star teams in his career, both during his time with the Diamondbacks.
In 2013, he was named a National League All-Star when he entered the All-Star break with an 11-1 record and 2.35 ERA in 19 starts. Corbin finished the year with a 14-8 record and 3.41 ERA in 32 starts.
He made the NL All-Star team again in 2018 when he headed into the All-Star break with a 6-4 record and 3.24 ERA in 20 starts. Corbin finished the season with an 11-7 record and 3.15 ERA in 33 starts.
8. Unique college journey
His grades in high school weren’t good enough to get him into a four-year college to play baseball. He ended up at Mohawk Valley Community College, located in Utica, New York.
Corbin played baseball and basketball his freshman year at Mohawk Valley. The summer after his freshman year, he caught scouts’ attention during summer ball.
That led him to Chipola College, which has one of the top junior college programs in the country. Corbin quit basketball and focused solely on baseball at his new school.
After a standout year at Chipola, he had signed a letter of intent with the University of Southern Mississippi, but opted to sign his first professional contract when the Angels drafted him with the 80th overall pick in the 2009 MLB draft.
9. Basketball was his first love
He was cut from a basketball team in seventh grade, so he avoided trying out for his high school teams until his junior year.
Corbin was a basketball standout at Cicero and played both sports during his one year at Mohawk Valley.
“He was a basketball junkie,” Mohawk Valley head coach Dave Warren said. “He wanted to play for Jim Boeheim. I think the tide turned toward baseball when he got here.
“He had a great year for us even though he was focused on basketball. We started indoor baseball in February, so he would show up in his basketball shorts and throw a bullpen [session].”
10. Struggles in Washington
Although he was a part of a World Series championship team in Washington in his first year, he turned into one of the worst contracts in baseball for most of his time with the Nationals.
From 2021-2024, the final four years of Corbin’s deal with the Nationals were ugly for any pitcher, let alone a pitcher on a contract that averaged over $23 million per year.
Among the 58 pitchers with at least 500 innings in those four years, he ranked last in ERA (5.71), losses (63), hits allowed (820) and WHIP (1.532). In that same timeframe, he led the major leagues in losses three times, led in hits allowed twice, led in earned runs allowed three times and led in home runs allowed once.
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Texas
North Texas middle school closes after a norovirus outbreak
A middle school in the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD is closed Friday after an outbreak of norovirus.
According to the school district, they closed Creekview Middle School in Fort Worth on Friday to sanitize and clean the building. The district said they plan on reopening the school on Monday.
The district said children started to get sick on Tuesday with what appeared to be a stomach virus and that on Wednesday it spread to a larger group.
EMSISD said they reached out to the Tarrant County Public Health Department and that they recommended disinfecting and cleaning the school on Wednesday night and reopening the next day.
More cases continued to be reported on Thursday, so the public health department then recommended that they clean again and close the campus on Friday.
Parents were notified of the district’s decision on Thursday afternoon.
The district has not said how many students and staff were sickened in the outbreak.
Officials with Children’s Medical Center said that because norovirus is highly contagious and resistant to many common hand sanitizers, it presents a unique challenge for families.
The hospital says hand sanitizer isn’t enough and recommends thorough hand washing with soap and water. They also recommend parents keep their children home for a full 48 hours after symptoms stop to prevent further outbreaks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there are approximately 2,500 norovirus outbreaks in the United States each year and that they are most common from November through April. For further tips on preventing the spread of norovirus, visit the CDC.
Texas
Trump heads to Texas, where 3 friends are battling it out in the Senate Republican primary
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump just can’t seem to choose among friends in the Texas Senate Republican primary.
So when he travels to the state on Friday for his first post- State of the Union trip, where he plans to promote his energy and economic policies, Trump will have all three candidates in the competitive race join him — just days before his party casts ballots in the primary race.
Sen. John Cornyn is battling for his fifth term and is being challenged by state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt in a primary fight that has become viciously personal. And all three men, missing the coveted endorsement from Trump, have been trying to highlight their ties to him as they ramp up their campaigning ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
For his part, Trump will be seeking to ride the message of his State of the Union address from Tuesday, where he declared a return to economic prosperity and a more secure America — two centerpiece arguments for Republicans as they campaign to keep their congressional majorities this fall.
Trump’s hesitation to endorse in the Texas Senate primary speaks to the tricky dynamics of the race.
Cornyn is unpopular with a segment of Texas’ GOP base, in part for his early dismissiveness of Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign and for his role in authoring tougher restrictions on guns after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. But Senate GOP leadership and allied groups see Cornyn as the stronger general election candidate, in light of a series of troubles that have shadowed Paxton.
Paxton beat impeachment on fraud charges in 2023, and has faced allegations of marital infidelity by his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, right, is joined by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, left, during a campaign stop in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. Credit: AP/Eric Gay
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, have urged Trump to endorse Cornyn. They and allied campaign groups argue that the seat would cost the party hundreds of millions more to defend with Paxton as the candidate.
“It is a strong possibility we cannot hold Texas if John Cornyn is not our nominee,” Scott told Fox News on Wednesday.
Hunt, a second-term Houston-area representative, was a later entry to the race, but claims a kinship with Trump, having endorsed him early in the 2024 race. Hunt campaigned regularly for Trump and earned a prime-time speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
If no candidate reaches 50% in Tuesday’s primary, the top two finishers will advance to a May 26 runoff.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, arrive before President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. Credit: AP/Allison Robbert
Cornyn’s campaign and a half-dozen allied groups have poured more than $63 million into the race since last fall, chiefly trying to slow Paxton but recently attacking Hunt in an effort to keep him from making it to the runoff.
Earlier this month, Trump feinted toward weighing in on the race when he said he was taking “a serious look” at endorsing in the Texas primary. He has since reaffirmed his neutrality.
Still, you wouldn’t know it from watching TV in Texas. Cornyn has been airing ads since last year touting his support for Trump’s agenda, even though his relationship with the president has been cool at times. Paxton and Hunt both have ads airing now featuring them standing with Trump.
“I like all three of them, actually. Those are the toughest races. They’ve all supported me. They’re all good. You’re supposed to pick one, so we’ll see what happens. But I support all three,” Trump said earlier this month.
The GOP battle comes as Democrats have a contested primary of their own in Texas between state Rep. James Talarico, a self-described policy wonk who regularly quotes the Bible, and progressive favorite U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
Trump hasn’t been shy about wading into other contested Republican primaries in the state. Parts of Corpus Christi fall within Texas’ 34th congressional district, where former Rep. Mayra Flores is fighting to reclaim her seat against the Trump-endorsed Eric Flores. (The two are not related.) The winner of the primary will face off against Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, long a target of the GOP, whose district was redrawn to make it easier for a Republican to win.
Eric Flores will be at the Trump event at the Port of Corpus Christi, which technically is located in a neighboring district.
Elsewhere in the state, the president has also endorsed Rep. Tony Gonzales, who is fighting calls from his own party to resign from Congress after reports of an alleged affair with a former staffer who later died after she set herself on fire. Gonzales is refusing to step down and has said that there will be “opportunities for all of the details and facts to come out” and that the stories about the situation do not represent “all the facts.”
Gonzales is facing a primary challenge from Brandon Herrera, a gun manufacturer and gun rights influencer who Gonzales defeated by fewer than 400 votes in their 2024 runoff. The White House did not return a request for comment on Thursday on whether Trump stands by his endorsement of Gonzales.
Texas
Man sentenced to 15 years in Texas crash that killed founding member of The Chicks
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after admitting his reckless driving caused a head-on collision in rural West Texas that killed Laura Lynch, a founding member of the country music group now known as The Chicks, prosecutors said.
Domenick Chavez, 33, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with Dec. 22, 2023, crash in Hudspeth County, according to a news release Tuesday from El Paso County District James Montoya, who also oversees nearby Hudspeth County.
The news release said Chavez was driving a truck westbound when he tried to pass four vehicles on a two-way undivided highway and collided head-on with Lynch’s eastbound truck. Lynch, 65, of Dell City, was trapped in her vehicle and died. Prosecutors said Chavez was traveling between 106 mph and 114 mph.
Prosecutors said alcohol wasn’t a factor in the crash but that Chavez was driving on a suspended license, which had been revoked due to his failure to comply with DWI-related surcharges and penalties from convictions in 2014 and 2017.
Lynch, along with Robin Lynn Macy and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer, formed The Dixie Chicks in the late 1980s. Lynch and Macy eventually left the band and Natalie Maines joined the sisters. The trio hit commercial fame with their breakthrough album “Wide Open Spaces” in 1998 and have won 13 Grammys. In 2020, the band changed its name to The Chicks.
In a social media post after Lynch’s death, The Chicks said Lynch had “infectious energy and humor” and was “instrumental” in the band’s early success.
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