Wasted opportunities doom Nats in 2-1 loss

Tanner Roark turned in one of his best outings of the season, overmatching eight of the nine batters in the Braves lineup. Unfortunately for Roark, veteran catcher A.J. Pierzynski was the lone Braves hitter who found plenty of success tonight. Pierzynki's second solo homer off Roark in the seventh gave the Braves a 2-1 lead they wouldn't relinquish as the Nationals lost the opener of their season-ending road trip.

The Nationals wasted an excellent chance to even the score in the ninth. After Jayson Werth and Clint Robinson began the frame with singles to left, Nationals manager Matt Williams called for Ian Desmond, who has 19 homers, to drop a sacrifice bunt.

Braves hard-throwing right-hander Arodys Vizcaino offered a slider, but the ball barely glanced off Desmond's bat, ending up just in front of the plate. Pierzynski pounced on the ball and threw a bullet to third baseman Daniel Castro, forcing Werth. Castro then fired across the diamond, nailing Desmond - who was slow out of the box having to avoid contact with Pierzynski - at first.

"We got a chance there to get guys to second and third," Williams explained to reporters. "A grounder or a fly ball or whatever ties it. Desi was out there early enough. It just bounced straight down and straight up to the catcher in fair territory."

Vizcaino proceeded to whiff Matt den Dekker to end the game. It was third time during the night that the Nats had a runner on second with no outs and failed to score.

"It's an opportunity for us there," Williams said to reporters. "We had an opportunity in the first and eighth as well. But it didn't happen for us tonight."

The Nationals ended up 0-for-9 with runners in scoring in position and left nine men on base.

Rookie Trea Turner continued swinging a hot bat, launching his first major league homer on a game-tying leadoff shot in the sixth off Braves rookie right-hander Matt Wisler. With two more hits tonight, Turner raised his season average to .292 (7-for-24) over the first 23 games of his career.

"The timing is there, of course, because he's getting more opportunities to play," Williams said. "And he'll get more as we go along the rest of the season. He showed some power tonight with his first major league homer. It's a big yard and it's damp so you really have to hit the ball to get it over the fence."

Roark was certainly a bright spot for the Nationals. The right-hander had disappointing results in his last four outings since rejoining the starting rotation on Sept. 4.

Tonight, Roark showed masterful control and a hard sinking fastball which induced 12 groundball outs over 6 2/3 innings. The only runs came on the two mistakes to Pierzynski, which unfortunately ended up in the seats at Turner Field. Roark yielded five hits with one walk and four strikeouts.

"I thought Tanner pitched really well," Williams said to reporters. "The two homers but other than they didn't score any other runs. He stretched to the seventh and got to 100 pitches, over 100, and pitched well. We just didn't capitalize on the opportunities we had tonight. It could've been a different story for him. But he pitched well enough to win, for sure."