WASHINGTON — Just when the Braves built the slightest offensive momentum Tuesday night, Rick Ankiel played spoiler again.
Not only did he ruin Michael Bourn’s debut with the Braves on a two-homer night Monday, he took care of the better part of the series, too. The former Braves center fielder launched a grand slam off Derek Lowe in a five-run fourth inning Tuesday night to fuel a 9-3 win by the Nationals.
Ankiel stole all the momentum after the Braves thought they might have a double play ball from the pitcher John Lannan the batter before and came away with nothing on a play at the plate.
The Nationals, now 13-10 against the Braves in Nationals Park since the beginning of the 2009 season, secured a victory in this best-of-three series and moved ahead of the Braves 6-5 in the season series.
The skidding Braves fell 7 1/2 games behind the Phillies in the National League East, pending the outcome of the Phillies-Rockies game in Colorado.
“We’re not making pitches, and we’re paying for it right now,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “He’s come up with some big home runs.”
The grand slam was the second of Ankiel’s career, and only his sixth home run of the 2011 season — half of which have come in the past two days against his former team.
Ankiel just became the latest headache for Lowe, who has lost three starts in a row without making it out of the fifth inning. He made it only two batters into the fifth Tuesday night and both of them scored, on a triple by Jonny Gomes and an Ian Desmond two-run homer.
“Today was a lot of mistakes over the middle of the plate and lot of not really quality pitches,” said Lowe, who is now 6-10 with a 4.86 ERA. “Lot of mistakes in the middle of the plate and consequently a lot of crooked numbers.”
Lowe allowed eight runs on 10 hits in four innings. He’s now 1-4 with a 7.52 ERA over his past five starts, allowing 22 earned runs in 26 1/3 innings, and a .365 opponents’ batting average. Lowe has allowed four or more runs in four of those five starts, dating to his July 10 loss in Philadelphia.
“It’s been a tough stretch, long year,” Lowe said. “But you’ve got to keep fighting, hoping things will turn around. But it’s definitely one of my longer years of my career.”
Lowe pitched through three innings Tuesday and allowed one unearned run before the wheels came off in the fourth. Gomes started it with a one-out walk to help load the bases.
Gomes then set things up for Ankiel by taking out catcher David Ross at home plate, undercutting him as pitcher John Lannan grounded to first. Freddie Freeman’s throw home was high and left Ross vulnerable as the run scored on the fielder’s choice.
Three pitches later, Ankiel deposited a grand slam into the center-field seats on 2-0 Lowe fastball.
“Tough throw to try to stay on the base,” said Ross, who initially argued the call. “I thought I did, replay showed I guess I didn’t stay on the base. I was trying to as best I could. The umpire made a great call. He was safe.”
Dan Uggla and Freeman both extended their hitting streaks Tuesday night, but it was little consolation for the Braves, who have lost three in a row.
Uggla’s fifth-inning single extended his streak to 24 games to match Gary Sheffield for the fourth-longest in Atlanta Braves history. Freeman extended his streak to 17 games with a double past the first base bag in the seventh.
Jose Constanza went 2-for-4 and put the Braves up 3-1 on an RBI hit. Michael Bourn also drove in his first run as a Brave, with a double in the third inning, but couldn’t find a hole in the fourth lining out to leave the bases loaded. Then things came undone for Lowe.
“You’re a little bit concerned because you know he can pitch better than that and it’s shown,” Gonzalez said. “... We’ll get him going. We need him.”
