Braves bullpen douses Nats comeback attempts again

ATLANTA - During a losing streak, it is rarely just one part of the club that is not playing well.

For the Nationals of 2017, losing streaks have been few.

Heading into Saturday's game in Atlanta, the Nationals had endured only two losing streaks of three games apiece: May 7-9 and May 17 to the present.

On a rainy Saturday night in SunTrust Park, the Nationals fell for the fourth time in a row, 5-2 to the Braves. The four-game skid is a season-worst total.

When the Nationals haven't been rolling, and that's been rare this season for the first place club, it has been the bullpen that has always been a spot to point to. The starting pitching has allowed the club to stay in each game, for the most part.

But the offense, that was rolling for the first eight to 10 weeks of the season, hasn't been surging the last few games.

In their last four games, all losses, the Nationals offense has put together only 11 runs. The offense has managed only one run after the fifth inning during the last four games.

On Saturday, shortstop Trea Turner went 2-for-4 with a RBI.

"I think it's just a little phase," Turner said of the recent cooling-off. "I think we're still having good at-bats, we're just not scoring runs. Still battling. Still putting the ball in play. It's one of the things where you're not scoring 10 runs, instead you're scoring two. Obviously, that's a big difference but I don't think we're that far from doing it."

The Nationals have combined for just 15 hits in their first two games here in Atlanta. They have scored a combined six runs, all before the sixth inning.

Even with their recent slower pace, they still have scored a Major League high 243 runs on the season.

Manager Dusty Baker said he thinks the offense will be fine, as it has all season, because Nats hitters are still making good, hard contact.

"We're still hitting some balls good," Baker said. "We're hitting some balls on the nose. Can't guide it. All you can is hit it, and we'll get back to that same form again, because we got some guys that can hit."

Catcher Matt Wieters went 1-for-4 with a run scored. He agreed with Baker.

"We've hit a lot of balls hard. It was just kind of at some people," Wieters said. "We've had some balls go to the wall, as opposed to over the wall. It's just stretches you're going to go through throughout the year. We're still grinding at-bats. We're still getting to seeing a lot of pitches. I think that's much as anything is our approach. It's just a matter of finding holes and kind of building some innings."

Wieters also pointed out that the Nationals lately haven't had blowout innings, such as the one they had at Colorado, that had become a staple earlier this season. Credit has to go to the Braves' pitching and the sure-handed fielding the infield defense has displayed.

"We haven't been able to build that kind of big inning that we were early in the year," Wieters said. "And that's just about hitting's contagious, so once we break through that big inning, hopefully it'll keep rolling for a while."

In this series alone, the Nationals scored four runs in the first four frames Friday night. On Saturday, they tallied only two runs in the fifth, then nothing after long rain delay.

"Late innings, we can't trade runs with them, and we hit some balls good but we're in a tough period right now," Baker said. "Can't hang your head. They're probably a little down but you gotta keep fighting because tomorrow's another day and you just got to keep grinding.

"Nothing lasts forever, good and bad, so right now every team, every good team's going to go on a three- or four-game losing streak. Hopefully, this (is) the end of it tonight."

Particularly impressive has been the bullpen of the Braves in this series. In the first two games, the Nationals have managed zero hits in 8 1/3 innings of Atlanta's relief pitching. That's right: zero hits. During that span, the Nats have earned one walk. That is the bigger reason why the Nationals haven't tallied a comeback. They can't get a rally going against Atlanta's bullpen.

"Just good pitchers," Turner said. "They got good arms back there. The two guys they throw in the middle, (Arodys) Vizcaíno and (Jose) Ramirez, both are really hard. Then you got (Jim) Johnson, who's really experienced. He's got good stuff as well. It's tough at bats. When you're down a few runs, you're fighting back against those guys. It's tough to regain the lead."

Programming Note: Check out Nats Insider on 106.7 The Fan with guests Valerie Camillo from the Nationals and Jamal Collier from MLB.com. Also listen in to interviews with Max Scherzer, Bryce Harper and Dusty Baker. 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. today.