Game 140 lineups: Nats at Braves

ATLANTA - The Nationals turn to their left-handed starter Patrick Corbin tonight as they look to get back in the four-game series against the Braves. Atlanta rode the pitching of their southpaw Max Fried on Friday night to a 4-2 opening win.

Right-hander Stephen Strasburg lasted six innings last night, surrendering only three runs for his 19th quality start in 29 games this season. Corbin is the only Nationals starter with more quality starts (21).

Nationals manager Davey Martinez said Corbin's go-to slider is extremely deceptive and creates a large number of swing-and-miss attempts from his opponents.

"His slider has made him what he is," Martinez said. "I'm really encouraged by his fastball lately. He's been up in the 94s mph. That's really good. But his slider ... the biggest thing is it looks like a fastball. I'm watching it and I put myself in hitter's shoes and I watch I come in and I think fastball, fastball, and it's a slider. It just goes down, it's late."

Corbin is 11-6 with a 3.19 ERA over 28 starts. He has 201 strikeouts and a 1.12 WHIP. The left-hander is 6-1 with a 1.96 ERA in 11 games (nine starts) against the Braves in his career.

The Braves starter is veteran left-hander Dallas Keuchel (6-5, 3.72). Corbin and Keuchel faced off July 29 when the Nats beat Atlanta 6-3. Keuchel is searching for his first ever win versus the Nationals: 0-3 with a 5.08 ERA in five career starts, 0-2 with a 6.10 ERA in two starts this season against Washington.

Washington finds themselves eight games back of the Braves with 23 games remaining, six against Atlanta. Three remaining games are here at SunTrust Park this weekend, and three next weekend at Nats Park. The Nats remain two games up on the Cubs for the National League wild card, 5 1/2 games ahead of the DiamondBacks for the final playoff spot.

Despite the eight-game deficit in the division, Martinez is not altering their goals.

"We got a lot of games," Martinez said. "Our backs are not against the wall, we just got to keep playing baseball. I've said all year long, we just got to go 1-0 tomorrow.

"I talk to the guys all the time. We control what we control. I said just keep playing the way we are playing. They're playing really well and they are winning games. We're playing really well. Don't look at the standings, just play one game at a time. If we keep doing what we're doing at the end of the day we will be where we need to be."

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at ATLANTA BRAVES
Where: SunTrust Park
Gametime: 7:20 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 1500 AM, MLB.com, XM 187 (Nationals version XM 869)
Weather: Sunny, 87 degrees, winds in from center field at 15 mph

NATIONALS (78-61)

SS Trea Turner
2B Howie Kendrick
3B Anthony Rendon
LF Juan Soto
1B Ryan Zimmerman
CF Victor Robles
C Yan Gomes
RF Michael A. Taylor
LHP Patrick Corbin

BRAVES (87-54)

CF Ronald Acuña Jr.
2B Ozzie Albies
1B Freddie Freeman
3B Josh Donaldson
LF Adam Duvall
SS Dansby Swanson
RF Austin Riley
C Tyler Flowers
LHP Dallas Keuchel