ATLANTA _ When Braves prospect Luiz Gohara faced Max Scherzer a week ago in Washington, the kid earned his first major league win and out-pitched the two-time Cy Young Award winner on a night when Atlanta handed Scherzer one of his worst losses in an 8-2 rout.
It was a good bet that Scherzer wasn't about to have anything resembling a repeat performance Tuesday and that Gohara would need an outing similar to last week if he hoped to stay with the Nationals veteran again.
Didn't happen.
The Nationals got four runs on 11 hits including six doubles against Gohara, who left in the seventh inning of a 4-2 Braves loss in a series opener at SunTrust Park.
The defeat assured what had seemed inevitable for several weeks, mathematically eliminating the possibility of the Braves (67-82) avoiding a fourth consecutive season. It's their longest such stretch of sub-.500 ball since enduring seven consecutive losing seasons from 1984-1990.
Braves center fielder Ender Inciarte exited after four innings due to left-humb soreness, aggravating an injury he initially sustained a week ago when he jammed the thumb at first base while trying to avoid a tag in a game at Washington.
Gohara (1-2) gave up more hits (11) in his third major league start than in his first two starts combined (10 hits in 10 innings), though he had a second consecutive walk-free outing since issuing four walks in four innings of his major league debut against the Rangers on Sept. 6.
He had four strikeouts Tuesday after striking out six in six innings of last week's win at Washington, where Gohara was charged with six hits and two runs, only one of which was earned.
This time, six different Nationals had a double against the 21-year-old left-hander.
Gohara needed only six pitches to get through first inning, his fastball topping out at 98 mph. And after giving up a leadoff double off the right-field wall to Ryan Zimmerman to start the second inning, he retired the next three including strikeouts of Howie Kendrick and Michael Taylor.
But after Matt Wieters doubled to start the third inning, the Nationals go to Gohara a bit. After a Scherzer sacrifice bunt, Trea Turner singled to drive in a run, and Anthony Rendon and Ryan Zimmerman added two-out singles in the inning as the Nationals took a 2-0 lead they wouldn't relinquish.
Scherzer (15-6) limited the Braves to five hits, two runs and one walk with seven strikeouts in seven innings and threw 83 strikes in 112 pitches. This after being charged with seven runs and six walks in six innings of the Sept. 13 loss at Nationals Park including five runs without recording an out in the seventh inning, when he walked the first three batters of the inning.
Scherzer retired the first 11 batters he faced Tuesday before the Braves got three consecutive two-out singles in the fourth inning from Freddie Freeman, Nick Markakis and Kurt Suzuki, whose hit on a 10-pitch at-bat drove in a run to cut the Nationals' lead to 2-1.
When Scherzer struck out Gohara to end the third inning, he became only the fourth pitcher to record at least 250 strikeouts in four consecutive seasons, joining Fergie Jenkins, Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson, who had more than 330 strikeouts in four consecutive seasons from 1999 through 2002.
The Nationals pushed the lead back to two runs in the fifth when Jayson Werth doubled and scored on Zimmerman's single off the glove of third baseman Rio Ruiz, which was initially ruled an error. The ruling was later changed and the run switched from unearned to earned.
The Braves answered with a run in the bottom of the fifth when Lane Adams drew a leadoff walk and scored on Dansby Swanson's double. But the Nationals pushed their margin back to two runs in the seventh when Turner hit a leadoff double, stole third base and scored on Rendon's one-out double.
There are 13 games left in the season including five at SunTrust before a seven-game season-ending trip to New York and Miami. Monday was the last off day for the Braves, who finish with 14 games in 13 days including a Monday doubleheader against the Mets at Citi Field.
