Cincinnati — The Braves team buses might have left skid marks Sunday afternoon getting out of Great American Ballpark.

The Braves wanted to escape Cincinnati as fast as possible, putting some distance between them and a 6-2 loss that dropped them to 1-5 on this road trip.

AP (ENLARGE)

Braves' Mark Teixeira congratulates catcher Brian McCann after he hit a home run off in the seventh inning in Cincinnati. Teixeira had hit a home run in the previous at-bat.

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They lost five of six to the fourth- and fifth-place teams in the NL Central without seeing either ace Ben Sheets or Aaron Harang.

"It's mind-boggling sometimes how good you can play at home and how putrid you are on the road," said Tim Hudson, who gave up four runs in six innings and left with a hamstring injury.

The Braves slink home to Turner Field where they are 22-7 vs. 7-21 on the road. Waiting for them are two teams ahead of them in the NL East — Florida, then Philadelphia.

"Everybody is happy to go home," Chipper Jones said. "It's the place we play our best baseball. We better go undefeated because we've got a long road trip coming up. And we're playing some good teams. If we don't start playing better, it's going to be a really long road trip."

The Braves have a mid-June jaunt to Chicago, Anaheim, Denver and Texas. But before worrying about that, they had to cringe at being swept in Cincinnati for the first time since 1996 by a team that they swept a month ago at home.

Reds rookie Jay Bruce — tabbed "Bruce Almighty" in local papers Sunday morning — went 2-for-3 with a homer, after his walk-off homer Saturday and four-hit night Friday. He's hitting .591 (13-for-22) since his call-up.

"We've got to get a voodoo doll or something," Kelly Johnson said. "I can't believe it. Today kind of summed it up, getting swept, not getting the offense in a park like this. It's really, really frustrating."

For a while, it looked like Johnny Cueto might no-hit the Braves before Gregor Blanco dropped down a bunt for a single to lead off the sixth inning.

Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann hit back-to-back homers in the seventh to cut the Reds' lead to 3-2, but the game unraveled with three runs in the bottom of the inning.

Hudson had to leave with a strained left hamstring and six batters later Blaine Boyer left with a strained right knee. Meanwhile, the Reds scored on a suicide squeeze play, another Bruce hit and a wild pitch. All three runs were unearned after a Yunel Escobar error extended the inning.

Hudson said afterward he didn't expect to miss any starts.

"It's probably as minor a strain as you can get," Hudson said. "I could have probably stayed out there and pitched."

Boyer said doctors told him his knee was structurally sound, but he's having an MRI Monday in Atlanta.

In the midst of the unraveling in the seventh, McCann had words with Jerry Hairston, who McCann and Blanco said afterward had said something to Blanco for bunting to break up the no-hitter.

"I just wanted to let him know that we're still trying to win the ball game, no matter if he's got a no-hitter or not," McCann said. "That's Blanco's game. It's not like it was me out there trying to bunt."

As bad as it's been, the Braves are still fighting the other team, not each other. That's what Chipper Jones said would happen if the Braves did what some teams do in this situation and call a meeting.

"The frustratrion level is at an all-time high," Jones said. "But fighting amongst ourselves and confronting people about their play is not the way to do it. It's just going to make things worse."