Cole gets dismantled as Nats fall for first time this season 13-6

ATLANTA - Right-hander A.J. Cole struggled with consistency in his first start and the Braves took full advantage.

Highlighted by a pair of three-run homers from Preston Tucker and Freddie Freeman, Atlanta scored nine runs in the first three innings and cruised to an emphatic 13-6 win.

It was the Nationals' first loss of the season.

The Braves pounded out 15 hits, including two homers and four doubles. It was the most runs the Nats had allowed since a 13-0 loss to Atlanta July 8, 2017 at Nats Park.

Cole, 26, allowed at least one run and two hits in each of the four innings he pitched. He surrendered a team record-tying 10 runs on 10 hits in 3 2/3 innings.

Nationals manager Davey Martinez said Cole had trouble finding the strike zone. During pregame, Martinez had pointed to first-pitch strikes for Cole as a key to success.

"His stuff wasn't bad," said Martinez. "His location was the problem. He'd get ahead, then he couldn't finish hitters off. He got a couple balls up in the zone, which for him he's got to get the ball down. To their defense, they came out and swung the bats pretty good. We tried to battle back, and it just wasn't enough."

The Braves scored four runs in the first and second innings. They pounded out eight hits in the first three frames. Cole also walked three batters.

"Yeah, body felt pretty good for the most part," Cole said. "I was just missing just by a little, fell behind in the count by a little bit. Fell behind in the counts a little bit and then they got into hitte'rs counts."

The Nationals raced out to a 3-0 first-inning lead thanks to a two-run shot by Ryan Zimmerman, his first homer of the season.

"He got started today," Martinez said. "He's a big key to our offense. When he starts swinging the bat well, he can carry us for a while."

The Braves quickly answered with four runs in their first at-bats. After one inning, the Nats faced their first deficit of the season 4-3.

In the second, Cole helped his own cause with the first home run of his career, tying the game at 4-4.

But again, the Braves had little trouble getting to Cole. In the second, Cole walked two and then allowed an Ozzie Albies RBI single. Freeman followed with his second homer of the season, the three-run shot that made it 8-4 Braves.

So with this kind of a performance, is Cole now fighting for his job?

Veteran Jeremy Hellickson reportedly was set to throw 80 pitches in extended spring training in Florida earlier Tuesday.

But after the loss, Martinez wasn't going to panic just yet with the fifth starter talk.

"Start No. 1," he said. "The beautiful thing about this is in five days he gets to do it again. I told him to keep his head up, and nice home run."

"We'll talk about it, depending on what happens in the next few days with the weather. Who knows what will happen with the crazy weather we're having? But, yeah, we've got to get him back out there."

Bryce Harper crushed his fourth homer of the season, a solo shot down the right field line in the top of the third. It was his fourth homer in the last three games. Second baseman Howie Kendrick, who went 2-for-5, usually hits a couple of spaces behind Harper. He knew the young slugger was capable of this kind of start to the season.

"Bryce is a great hitter. He's getting even better," Kendrick said. "It seems like the plate discipline becoming even more. Not that he hasn't known the strike zone before, but it's impressive what he's been doing and what he did last year. I know he got hurt towards the tail end of the year last year, but this year he's coming out strong. Hopefully, he can continue to do what he's doing because it helps us out a lot."

Down 4-3 and 8-5 the Nats still had a shot. But with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third and down three, Miguel Montero and Cole were unable to get the runners home. Kendrick said the dugout wasn't giving up.

"You give up runs like that early we still have opportunity," Kendrick said. "There's a lot of game left. We put up three the first inning. Then they came back and put up four and then Cole hit the homer. Any time it's early in the game like that, there's always a chance to come back.

"You just got to keep inching away putting runs up. We had a lot of traffic on the bases, too. It just seemed like early on it was going to be a battle back and forth. and then they just kind of took over later in the game."

Enny Romero did not fare well in relief. He allowed one run on three hits over 1 1/3 innings. Trevor Gott also surrendered a two-run single to pinch-hitter Lane Adams.

But Shawn Kelley pitched a scoreless sixth, recording a strikeout, and Sammy Solís was solid, striking out the side in the seventh, hitting 95.8 mph on his fastball.

The bullpen ended up allowing three runs over the final 4 1/3 innings.

"Good," Martinez said of the bullpen. "I really believe we've got some guys that are rested now. I wanted to see Kelley go back to back and he did, and he was awesome. So that was good. I wanted to get Gott in there, I wanted to get Enny in there, and Solís did really good."