Miami — It has been a particularly awful stretch of road games for Braves hitters, who've been dominated by young and old pitchers, right-handers and lefties, Japanese and Americans.

Add a Dutchman to the list of conquerors. The Braves were shut out again.

MCT (ENLARGE)

Braves' Mark Teixeira points to the foul pole, questioning first base umpire Doug Eddings about his foul ball in the fourth inning.

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Rick VandenHurk threw five messy, hitless innings and three Marlins relievers went the rest of the way in a 4-0 Florida win against the Braves, who mustered one hit and even came up empty after loading the bases with none out.

Mike Jacobs hit a two-out three-run homer off Charlie Morton (2-3) in the fourth after the Braves rookie issued a pair of walks in the inning.

"They took advantage of [walks]," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "We had three straight walks and then didn't get 'em in. They had two, had two outs, and I think Jacobs was probably sitting on a change-up and hit it out.

"That was the difference. They took advantage of it, and we didn't. Very simple."

Jeff Francoeur's woeful season continued unabated when the right fielder struck out with bases loaded and none out in the fourth inning, swinging at four consecutive pitches (he fouled one back) after VandenHurk issued three consecutive walks to start the inning.

At least three of those pitches Francoeur swung at appeared to be out of the strike zone, and he sunk to an almost unfathomable 3-for-22 in bases-loaded situations, with seven strikeouts and four double plays grounded into.

It was the 12th loss in 19 games for the fourth-place Braves, who fell to seven games behind National League East leader Philadelphia and six behind the Marlins and New York Mets, who are tied for third, only a game behind the Phillies.

To give general manager Frank Wren any reason to be a buyer and not a seller before the July 31 trade deadline, the Braves might need a highly improbable surge in the remaining four games of this trip in Florida and Philadelphia.

VandenHurk was just recalled from Class AA to make his third start of the season and had missed six weeks with an ulnar nerve problem. He threw 94 pitches in five hitless innings and recorded five walks and seven strikeouts.

"Weird," said Johnson, trying to explain how the Braves failed to take advantage of his mistakes. "It was combination of him being effectively wild and us being too aggressive. We had our chances."

Hitting coach Terry Pendleton said the always-aggressive Francoeur, hitting .231 overall, needed to approach the bases-loaded situation looking for a good pitch he could drive, not swinging at just anything close to the plate.

"Be patient, because you've got the pitcher where you want him," Pendleton said. "You've got to be aggressive in the strike zone, make him throw you a strike."

Kelly Johnson followed Francoeur by also striking out swinging, then Mark Kotsay popped out to end the frustrating inning.

Cox, serving a one-game suspension for excessive arguing in Sunday's game against Washington, watched the game on television in the visiting manager's office while bench coach Chino Cadahia served as interim manager.

It's hardly the first time he has watched Braves hitters come up empty lately.

Their 7-12 skid began June 28 at Toronto, and the Braves are 4-6 in 10 road games since then, wasting a solid 3.00 team ERA in that road stretch.

They've scored 35 runs in those 10 road games, and 21 of those runs came in two games. They've been shut out four times in that ugly stretch, and they:

• Had no hits or walks though six innings July 9 against the Dodgers' Derek Lowe;

• Had no hits through four innings July 8 against the Dodgers' Chad Billingsley;

• Had no hits or walks through seven innings July 7 against the Dodgers' Hiroki Kuroda;

• Totaled five hits June 29 in shutout loss at Toronto;

• Had one hit through four innings against Jake Peavy in a July 11 shutout loss at San Diego.