Hanson streak snapped in loss to Nationals

The Braves knew better than to be at ease this weekend, despite a 10-run win in their series-opener against Washington Friday night.

The Nationals will sneak up and bite. That’s just what they did against Tommy Hanson on Saturday night, a pitcher who had been largely untouchable for the past six weeks.

The Nationals made Hanson’s first start after the All-Star break pretty miserable. He gave up a season-high five runs in 5 1/3 innings in a 5-2 loss to the Nationals to snap his five-game winning streak.

“I didn’t go out and do my job, and that’s a little bit frustrating,” said Hanson, who had been 5-0 with a 1.85 ERA over his previous six starts.

Hanson might have been affected by six days off since his previous start against the Phillies, thanks to a four-day layoff for the All-Star break. But he wouldn’t use it as an excuse.

“If anything I felt like it let my body recover a little bit,” Hanson said.

As rare as the loss was for Hanson, now 10-5, the way his night started to sour was fairly familiar. The pitcher John Lannan singled to drive in two runs with the bases loaded in the second inning to give the Nationals a 3-0 head start on Hanson. It was the third straight game Hanson has allowed a hit to the opposing pitcher.

Lannan hadn’t had a hit all year, going 0-for-32 before Saturday, but he got two in three at-bats against Hanson to raise his average from .000 to .057. He got a little luck to break through on a seeing-eye single up the middle, splitting Alex Gonzalez and Dan Uggla, not that it was much consolation to Hanson.

“If that ball is a couple feet to the left, the whole complex of the game is totally different,” Hanson said. “It’s easy to say that now. At the time you’ve got to bear down and make pitches.”

A two-run homer by Gonzalez in the bottom of the second got Hanson back in the game, but he lost his grip again in the sixth, giving up a two-run homer to Wilson Ramos.

Ramos had two of the season-high eight hits off Hanson, including a double, a homer and three RBIs.

“I can’t just go out there and toy with those hitters,” Hanson said.

“You can’t just go out and dominate every single time. They’re big-league hitters and you’ve just got to keep battling and try to make your pitches. I don’t want to get too down and think too in-depth on this game.”

The Nationals evened the series 1-1, the season series at 4-4 and moved to 22-22 against the Braves since the start of the 2009 season. The Phillies lost to the Mets 11-2 on Saturday, so the Braves remained 3 ½ games back in the NL East. The Braves are stuck celebrating 10,000 franchise wins for at least one more day.

A crowd of 42,456, Turner Field’s largest since 44,460 came to see the Braves-Rangers on June 18, had hoped for another rousing offensive night. The Braves had scored 11 runs in the series opener Friday night, but they managed only two on one second-inning swing by Gonzalez.

Boredom had set in by the eighth inning for one fan, apparently. A man dressed in a wedding dress ran out on the field only to be tackled and escorted off by security, train flowing behind him.

Against the left-handed Lannan, the Braves needed one of their right-handed bats to come through. Gonzalez did his part with his first home run since June 10 to draw within 3-2. They got nothing more across, though, and are now 15-14 on the season against left-handed starters.