With ace Tim Hudson going through his first rough patch of the season, the last thing the Braves needed was for another of their projected postseason starters to struggle in the September drive.
But that's what Jair Jurrjens is doing, and making the postseason isn't looking quite as likely for the Braves as it did a couple of weeks ago.
Jurrjens' erratic run continued Tuesday night when he allowed four runs and nine hits in five innings of a 6-0 loss to the Washington Nationals at Turner Field, dropping the Braves to two games behind National League East leader Philadelphia.
Nationals veteran Livan Hernandez (10-11) pitched eight innings of five-hit ball and hit a home run and an RBI double off Jurrjens, both of those hits with two outs. Jurrjens also gave up a mammoth two-run homer to Adam Dunn in the three-run second inning.
"I don't know what's going on," said Jurrjens (7-6), who has allowed 19 hits and 11 earned runs in 8 2/3 innings of two starts on this homestand, losses to St. Louis and Washington. "If I knew the answer I'd give it to you. Just a couple of really rough starts for me."
Jurrjens was asked about the level of frustration, especially after giving up two run-scoring extra-base hits to the opposing pitcher.
"Every game we lose right now is going to be frustrating, especially if the Phillies are winning," he said. "Every game right now is real important for us. Every game we don't win is going to be stressful."
The Nationals snapped a six-game losing skid and the Braves slipped to more than 1 1/2 games out of first place for the first time since May 26.
"I don't care who he was pitching against tonight, they would have had trouble," Braves manager Bobby Cox said of Hernandez. "And we had trouble.
"We gave them too many runs real quick. J.J. was off his mark again, and made the 2-1 change-up to Dunn – that's the longest home run I've ever seen hit here, I think. He made two really bad pitches and that's three runs on the board out of the four he gave up."
Their wild-card lead was down to one game over San Francisco pending the outcome of the Giants' late game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
"It's a tight race, and it's going to be tight," Braves first baseman Derrek Lee, who received some boos from a crowd of 26,954 after striking out with a runner at first to end the sixth inning. "We're not going to win every game, so we've got to concentrate on getting a series. We've got a chance to do that tomorrow."
Needing a win in Wednesday's series finale to avoid their first home-series loss since April 22, the Braves send rookie left-hander Mike Minor to face lefty John Lannan, who has five wins and a 3.08 ERA in his past eight starts.
The Braves advanced just one runner to second base in eight innings against Hernandez, and had only one at-bat with a runner in scoring position all night.
"Livan did what Livan does best," Braves left fielder Matt Diaz said. "Keep you off balance, throw sinkers, read your mind -- when you're looking breaking ball, throws you a sinker. When you're looking sinker he throws you a breaking ball. And throws a split out of nowhere. He's been here a long time. He knows how to pitch, that's for sure."
"He definitely knows how to pitch with a lead. When you can locate like that – he's not Greg Maddux, but he's Maddux-esque when he can locate like he did tonight."
The stocky Hernandez was hitting .115 with no extra-base hits and one RBI before teeing off on a couple of pitches from Jurrjens.
The Nationals had hit .186, scored 10 runs and hit two homers during a six-game skid before Tuesday, when they racked up four hits and three runs in the second inning against Jurrjens.
Over his past 10 starts, Jurrjens is 4-3 with a 4.90 ERA. He has lasted fewer than six innings in four of five starts and allowed nine or more hits in four of his past six.
Hernandez is only 7-16 in 32 regular-season games against the Braves, but is 4-1 with a 2.68 ERA in seven starts against the Braves over the past two seasons.
Dunn's mammoth two-run homer in the second inning was one of the longest in recent memory at Turner Field. The Braves provided an estimate of 455 feet, which seemed a bit conservative.
The ball sailed over the right-center field pavilion seats and landed on the concourse between the Chop House restaurant and the base of the center-field video board, giving the Nationals a 2-0 lead.
Later in the inning, Nyjer Morgan singled and scored on Hernandez's two-out liner beyond the reach of diving center fielder Nate McLouth.
"He made two really bad pitches and that's three runs on the board out of the four he gave up," Cox said.
Hernandez hit his 10th career homer in the fourth, the second home run by a pitcher against the Braves in five days. St. Louis' Chris Carpenter homered off Minor on Friday.
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