Nats again can't keep Braves in the yard in 7-6 loss (updated)

There appear to be two ways to beat the Braves, neither simple. You can try to outslug one of the most powerful lineups in baseball. Or you can try to keep Ronald Acuña Jr. and Freddie Freeman in the ballpark.

Again, neither of these is a simple task, as the Nationals have painfully learned over the last week.

And because they once again couldn't keep Acuña and Freeman in the yard, and couldn't turn a good night at the plate into a great night at the plate, they suffered another loss to the National League East leaders and failed to capitalize on the positive momentum they created by winning four of their previous five heading into this weekend series.

Despite opening up an early five-run lead, the Nationals gave it all back to the Braves and then some during a 7-6 loss that was made possible by three more homers by Acuña and Freeman, plus one more by Dansby Swanson that proved the difference.

"They get such timely hits, it hurts my head to think about it," right fielder Adam Eaton said during a postgame Zoom session with reporters. "It's crazy. They need a hit, they get it."

They got a bunch of needed hits tonight, capped by Swanson's eighth-inning solo shot off a high Tanner Rainey fastball, which broke a tie game and gave Atlanta its first lead of the night.

"It's been tough the last few games against them, for sure," Rainey said. "Just about any ball they put in the air seems like it just doesn't stop lately."

There's been a whole lot of balls put in the air by Braves hitters off Nats pitchers this season, and tonight was merely the latest example. Swanson's homer was the last of four big blasts during a five-inning stretch, the three biggest ones coming from their two usual suspects. Acuña and Freeman combined to hit three homers, each of them scoring two runs, off Austin Voth, Wander Suero and Will Harris to make a game out of what could've been a comfortable Nationals win.

Not that this was anything new. It was simply a continuation of last weekend's developments at Truist Park, where Acuña and Freeman did the exact same thing. In five games between these two rivals over the last seven days, those two sluggers have combined for a staggering 10 homers and 21 RBIs.

"If you make your pitches, you can get those guys out," manager Davey Martinez said. "We've got guys that can get them out, for sure. ... When you get hitters like that, and they're hot, and you look where they're hitting the ball and doing their damage, you've got to try to stay away from there. Because right now, they're not missing. They're hitting the ball hard. We've just got to make better pitches in certain situations."

The Nationals bullpen has, in the big picture, been a strength this season. Just not against those guys. Tonight's struggles were compounded by the sight of Sean Doolittle limping off the mound after grabbing his right side upon throwing his third and last pitch of the top of the ninth. Martinez said the lefty indeed injured his oblique muscle; with only 2 1/2 weeks left in the regular season, there may not be time for him to make it back.

All of this came after a positive start to this game. The best thing the Nationals could do to help out Voth tonight was to score a bunch of early runs and hand their beleaguered starter a lead. So they went out and did just that, scoring five runs in the first two innings with a barrage of extra-base hits off Braves starter Robbie Erlin.

Three straight RBI extra-base hits - Trea Turner's triple, Juan Soto's double and Asdrúbal Cabrera's triple - highlighted a three-run bottom of the first and set a positive tone for the night. Michael A. Taylor opened the bottom of the second with a double, and three batters later, Eaton (after showing bunt on the first two pitches he saw) blasted a two-run homer into the second deck in right-center, a 434-foot blast that made it 5-0 and knocked Erlin from the game.

"You score five runs early like that, you should win the ballgame," Martinez said.

"I don't think five runs is ever safe in this league," Eaton countered later.

Handed a nice lead like that, Voth went to work and did what he usually does: cruise his first trip through an opposing lineup. The right-hander retired all nine batters he faced in the first, second and third innings on only 40 pitches, using a sharp-breaking curveball to record three straight strikeouts.

All that did, though, was set up the top of the fourth as the defining frame of Voth's outing, given his past struggles the second time through a lineup and the fact the top of the Atlanta lineup is as fearsome as it gets.

So it couldn't have surprised anyone who has been paying attention when Voth opened the critical fourth by walking Acuña and then serving up the two-run homer to Freeman to ignite the Braves offense.

By the time the inning ended, Voth's pitch count was up to 76. But with the Nationals still leading 5-2, Martinez decided to give his a starter a chance to open the fifth. He didn't stay out there for long. After striking out Nick Markakis on a changeup, Voth hit Tyler Flowers with a fastball. And with the top of the order coming back up again, that's as much rope as Martinez was willing to give Voth.

"He was lights-out for three innings today," Martinez said. "And then what I noticed was his velo went down and his mechanics kind of went sideways a little on him there. He hit Flowers. He started opening up. He started yanking balls. That's an indication that he's either getting tired or he just lost focus."

Not that Suero fared any better in Voth's place. Suero's very first pitch to Acuña, a thigh-high cutter over the plate, wound up clearing the out-of-town scoreboard in right-center for another two-run homer that trimmed the lead to 5-4.

The Nationals got one of the runs back in the bottom of the inning, but missed an opportunity to add more when they stranded two runners on base (continuing a trend that began earlier in the evening). And so they went into the latter portion of a very long game hoping six runs would be enough to beat a Braves team that entered the night averaging 5.9 runs per game.

It was not enough. Not when Acuña and Freeman still have opportunities to step to the plate and do what they've been doing to the Nationals throughout this painful season.

"I was this close, honestly, to just walking (Freeman in the seventh inning)," Martinez said. "I just had a strong feeling that Harris, with his cutter, could get him out. We're up two right there. It just didn't happen tonight."