Shelby Miller retired the first nine batters he faced for the second consecutive start Wednesday, but this time the Braves ace was just getting warmed up.
He recorded 18 outs in the first 18 Washington Nationals that he faced, allowing just one single in that span and erasing the runner by getting the next batter to ground into a double play.
Miller ended up pitching seven innings of three-hit ball, and the Braves sputtered offensively for most of the night but once again refused to go down easily, rallying for a run in the ninth to force extra innings.
But once again, it wasn’t enough.
Not for Miller to snap his winless streak nor for the Braves to snap their losing streak against the Nationals, both of which reached seven with a 2-1, 11-inning loss before a crowd of 36,141 at Nationals Park.
Ian Desmond’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly off reliever David Aardsma with one out in the 11th inning gave the Nationals their seventh consecutive win against the Braves and dropped Atlanta to four games behind the NL East leaders. The Braves will try to avert a three-game sweep in the series finale Thursday.
“All I’m trying to do is go out there and pitch,” said Miller, who allowed three hits and one run in seven innings, got no decision, and is 0-2 in his past seven starts despite a 2.70 ERA in that span. “Obviously wins are good, they’re great. But at the end of the day, we lost. I’m not going out and trying to win it for myself, we’re trying to win it for a team, and we’re trying to get in first place and we’re playing a tough team.
“It’s obviously frustrating losing two games already (in the series) when we’re trying to chase this thing, but we’ve just got to keep grinding it out.”
Miller was out of the game when the Braves tied it in the ninth on Kelly Johnson’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly. Joey Terdoslavich, who was walked intentionally with none out and runners at second and third, made a highly questionable decision to try to advance to second base on the sac fly, and was thrown out for a double play.
With a runner at third and two out instead of one, Andrelton Simmons grounded out to end the inning. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said it was an aggressive play and that he wasn’t “overly mad” that Terdoslavich tried it.
“It wasn’t the right play,” Terdoslavich said. “The winning run’s on third, my run doesn’t mean anything. Just tried to be aggressive. He made a great throw, but I shouldn’t have went. I should have stayed at first.”
The inning began with consecutive singles from Nick Markakis and A.J. Pierzynski off Nationals closer Drew Storen, the third hit for Markakis.
The Nationals’ winning run was set up after Bryce Harper hit a one-out double in the 11th off left-hander Dana Eveland, who intentionally walked Wilson Ramos to bring up Clint Robinson.
Eveland went to a full count against Robinson before walking him to load the bases, and Aardsma entered to face Desmond. Aardsma was the seventh Braves pitcher and gave up the sac fly on his first pitch.
The Nationals had threatened in the 10th when reliever Nick Masset gave up a one-out double to Michael Taylor and intentionally walked Danny Espinosa, but left-hander Luis Avilan got ground balls from Denard Span and Tyler Moore to get out of the inning unscathed. There would be no such escape after Eveland gave up a one-out double in the 11th.
The Braves got a two-out double from pinch-hitter Chris Johnson against left-hander Felipe Rivero in the 11th, before Rivero struck out Kelly Johnson.
In the 10th, Eury Perez hustled and slid head-first to beat out a bunt single up the first-base line, then advanced to second on a wild pitch. But Jace Peterson grounded out on a dribbler in front of the plate, and Cameron Maybin flied out to end the inning.
The Nationals broke a scoreless tie in the seventh after a leadoff walk by Span. Anthony Rendon followed with a single, his sixth hit in two nights against the Braves, and one out later Harper hit a flare single to shallow right field to bring in the run.
Miller allowed just three hits, one run and one walk with five strikeouts in seven innings. He got no decision and is 0-2 with a 2.70 ERA in his past seven starts, with the Braves scoring one or no runs while he was in five of those games.
“Shelby was tremendous,” Gonzalez said. “He even made a great pitch to Harper there, he just barely got it over the infield and they scored a run. But he was tremendous. And we battled. We got a lot of people on base, did a nice job against Storen in the ninth inning. We just didn’t get it done.”
On Miller’s seven-start winless streak, Gonzalez said, “It’s unbelievable, it really is. Today, if we just gave him half a run…”
Miller threw 61 strikes in 86 pitches before Gonzalez had Pedro Ciriaco pinch-hit for him to lead off the eighth with the Braves trailing 1-0. Ciriaco, who had been 9-for-18 with two doubles and six RBIs in in his past nine games, flied out, and Nationals starter Jordan Zimmermann retired the side in order.
The Nationals didn’t have a base runner until Rendon’s one-out single in the fourth, and Miller induced an inning-ending double play grounder by Yunel Escobar. That started another stretch of seven consecutive batters retired before Span led off the seventh inning with a walk that proved costly.
Zimmermann was 0-3 with a 7.63 ERA and .386 opponents’ average in his past three starts before Wednesday, when he limited the Freddie Freeman-less Braves to six hits in eight innings, with no walks and three strikeouts. Freeman, who is 9-for-24 (.375) against Zimmermann, went on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday with a right-wrist injury.
Zimmerman got no decision and 2-1 with a 2.54 ERA in six starts against the Braves over the past two seasons.
“I pitched good,” Miller said. “I was just trying to go out and match Jordan the whole time. He was doing the same thing, he was pitching great. It’s tough to get some at-bats going against a guy who’s doing that. But like I said, we came back in the ninth, did a good job with that, which is huge. We just didn’t finish it.”
The Braves wasted a scoring opportunity with one out in the second inning, after Johnson singled and Simmons reached on an error. Perez grounded into a double play to snuff that.
They also got consecutive two-out singles by Terdoslavich and Johnson in the fourth, before Simmons grounded out. After Markakis singled with one out in the sixth, Pierzynski grounded out and Terdoslavich flied out to the warning track.
