Braves suffer ‘nightmare’ eighth in loss to Nationals

Washington, D.C. — The Braves bullpen has been going on fumes for a while now, but on Sunday even the relatively fresh arm did them no good.

Newcomer Elmer Dessens, trying to resurrect his career out of the Mexican Leagues, was given the ball with a one-run lead over the Nationals in the eighth inning. It disappeared on a three-run home run by Aaron Boone.

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Braves’ Martin Prado slides past Nationals catcher Wil Nieves as he scored on a single by Omar Infante during the first inning.

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With that blow and another two runs to rub it in, the Nationals were on their way to an 8-4 win, a weekend series sweep and their 10th win in 14 games against the Braves this season.

“We had one bad inning, the eighth, and it was a nightmare,” manager Bobby Cox said.

Dessens, making his second appearance of the series, gave up five runs in the eighth on four hits and a walk while recording only an out. He’s allowed seven runs in his two appearances since the Braves activated him Friday.

“Everything was up in the zone,” Dessens said. “Washington is hot. They’re hitting pretty good. They hit it. If you don’t make any quality pitchers, they’re going to hit them. … I tried too hard to make the pitches and they stayed up in the zone and that was the game.”

Cox’s options for the eighth inning were extremely limited after getting only 7-2/3 innings from his starters in the first two games of this series.

Buddy Carlyle and Vladimir Nunez had pitched the first two games of the series. Jeff Bennett and Julian Tavarez had both pitched multiple innings on Saturday night. Manny Acosta was his only fresh arm, but he had experienced shoulder soreness after his last outing last Sunday. It was his first outing coming off the disabled list with a hamstring injury.

“He sat out so long he never built his arm back up,” Cox said. “He’s tried to throw in the bullpen his velocity hasn’t been there.”

Cox eventually went to Will Ohman to get Dessens out of the inning. Ohman was tied for the majors-lead with 71 appearances and had allowed six runs in his last eight outings.

“Other guys have pitched two innings,” Cox said. “I couldn’t do that to them, look myself in the face trying to win a ballgame and kill a pitcher.”

The Braves had taken a 4-3 lead on redeeming efforts by Jair Jurrjens and Yunel Escobar.

Escobar had gotten the night off Saturday after hitting into a franchise record-tying three double plays. He responded by hitting a three-run homer for the go-ahead runs.

Jurrjens was coming off the shortest outing of his career of three innings against the Marlins but rebounded with a quality start. He gave up three runs in six innings and struck out seven.

He still had some control issues, with three walks, including one to pitcher Colllin Balester, but stayed out of the big inning. Of the five hits he allowed, two were on the infield.

“I walked the pitcher and didn’t go deep in the game like I wanted to,” Jurrjens said. “It stinks to get swept by Washington. I think we had two games we could have won. We’ve been playing like this all season. It’s just a little frustrating to lose the last two games.”

Jurrjens’ pitch count climbed, and he had to come out after 109 in six innings. That only contributed to the bullpen woes.

“I feel their pain,” Jurrjens said. “We’re not giving good starts to the team and that’s why we’ve been struggling a little bit in the bullpen.”