Braves walk away with another loss

Washington — You’d think by now the Braves couldn’t be stunned by the Nationals any more than they already have been.

But you’d be wrong.

Saturday night the Braves twice took four-run leads, set up Jo-Jo Reyes to win for the first time in two months and actually hit three home runs — as many as they had hit in a week. But none of that mattered as the Nationals rallied for a 9-8 win in 10 innings on a bases-loaded walk by Elijah Dukes.

It was an ugly way to lose in what’s been an ugly season series for the Braves, who have lost nine of 13 against the Nationals.

“You feel like you’ve got the game won,” said Chipper Jones, who homered to join Eddie Mathews as the only players with 20 or more home runs in each of the first 14 seasons of their careers. “We were up 4-0, 6-2 and then what’s been happening all year reared its ugly head. We just had one inning where we couldn’t get anybody out.”

Thanks to a five-run fifth, the Nationals — who have the worst record in baseball — extended the Braves’ record losing streak in one-run games on the road to 28 games dating to last August.

They did it on a walk-off walk by Dukes against Vladimir Nunez, after Nunez nearly worked out of a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam. But he lost Dukes on a two-out 3-2 pitch.

The Braves had tied the score 8-8 in the eighth and had a chance to go ahead, but Josh Anderson was thrown out at the plate. The speedy center fielder followed Greg Norton home on a Gregor Blanco double to right but became the second out with Jones and Brian McCann next up.

“I thought he’d make it easy,” said manager Bobby Cox. “I thought we did the right thing. I was hollering ‘Go.’ He made a wide turn at third, lost a step and a half, or he’s safe easy.”

The Nationals chased Jo-Jo Reyes with back-to-back singles to start a five-run inning. Shortly thereafter Jesus Flores hit a bases-clearing double off Buddy Carlyle to tie the game 6-6. Anderson Hernandez drove in Flores with a two-out single for a 7-6 lead.

Jones’ historical shot off Charlie Manning in the seventh pulled the Braves to within 8-7.

“It’s just me doing my job,” Jones said. “A lot of players aren’t lucky enough to play this long, but I have been that lucky and relatively healthy throughout that run. Any kind of longevity record is a feather in your cap, means you’ve had a pretty good career to be standing beside Eddie Mathews.”

McCann homered for the second time in three games for his 23rd, and Martin Prado followed with his second. The Braves hadn’t hit three homers in a game since July 20 — against the Nationals. The Braves lost that game 15-6.

Twelve of those runs in July came off Reyes and Carlyle. Saturday, the Nationals scored seven runs in 10 hitters off those two.

“I haven’t pitched well against these guys,” Carlyle said. “I don’t know what it is about those guys. They’re good hitters, they’re young and they play hard, but it’s one of those deals that’s hard to explain.”

Reyes was gunning for his first win since June 13 but needed 94 pitches to get through four-plus innings. He is now 0-7 with a 6.75 ERA in his past 10 outings.

“I need to find a way to get outs and get through a game,” Reyes said. “I’ve got to keep working and not worry about getting three more outs to get a win. I need to start getting guys out early in the count so I can work deeper in the game.”