Dodgers’ Mattingly upbeat despite 3-1 loss to Braves

ATLANTA — More than a quarter of the season is complete. The losses are continuing to mount.

But in the wake of a come-from-ahead, 3-1 defeat to the Atlanta Braves on Saturday night, Manager Don Mattingly remained adamant that the last-place Dodgers are underperforming. The alternative would have been to concede that the $230-million ballclub is incapable of winning consistently.

“I’m not going to believe that,” Mattingly said. “I know we’re capable.”

BOX SCORE: Atlanta 3, Dodgers 1

Mattingly pointed to how before losing their first two games of a three-game series at Turner Field, the Dodgers won four of five games.

“Obviously, if you’re going to look at the bigger, 13- or 14-game picture, it’s not very good,” Mattingly admitted.

The Dodgers had the Braves where they wanted Saturday. They were ahead, 1-0, in the eighth inning with one out, a man on first and ace reliever Kenley Jansen on the mound.

Jansen served up a two-run home run to pinch-hitter Evan Gattis. He also gave up a home run to the next hitter, Andrelton Simmons.

The one-run edge was suddenly a 3-1 deficit.

The decision to lift Chris Capuano for Jansen was a reasonable one, as Capuano said he was fatiguing and Jansen entered the game with a 2.11 earned-run average. But almost everything Mattingly does these days seems to go against him.

Mattingly refused to see it that way.

“I’m not really a defeatist, where it’s like, ‘Everything’s going bad,’ ” Mattingly said. “Things haven’t gone the way we’ve wanted.”

Matt Magill, a rookie pitcher with a 6.92 earned-run average, will be called on to change that on Sunday in the series finale.

Jansen was noticeably upset by what transpired Saturday.

“It’s frustrating when you’re just losing every time,” Jansen said.

The pitch that Gattis hit out was the eighth of his at-bat, a cut fastball on the inside part of the plate. Jansen said he intended to put the ball there.

“I was just going to go in there,” Jansen said. “He was creeping up on home plate. Every time I was throwing outside, he kept trying to get to that pitch outside. He just hit a good pitch. What could I do? I tip my hat to him.”

Gattis has been one of baseball’s best stories this season. A junior college player in Oklahoma, he walked away from the game in 2006 and spent 3 1/2 years wandering the western United States on a personal journey. He worked odd jobs: janitor, ski lift operator, valet and pizza maker, according to multiple news reports.

Gattis returned to baseball in the fall of 2009. He played at the University of Texas-Permian Basin and was drafted the following spring by the Braves.

He is now a 26-year-old rookie.

“He’s a nice story, what he’s been through,” Capuano said. “I hate that he beat us tonight, but you’ve got to tip your hat to him.”

Capuano was efficient, as he threw only 91 pitches in 7 1/3 innings. He held the Braves to five hits.

He was saved in the first inning by center fielder Matt Kemp, who made a leaping catch to rob Jason Heyward of a home run.

“That was amazing,” Capuano said. “Matt looked like Spiderman out there.”

The left-hander said he also benefited from the climate.

“As a pitcher, you get a little bit of humidity, it really helps,” Capuano said.

But Braves starter Kris Medlen had the same advantage and used it to limit the Dodgers to two hits over seven innings.

The Dodgers scored their only run in the fourth inning, when Skip Schumaker doubled into the left-field corner. Justin Upton made a fielding error, allowing Adrian Gonzalez to score from first base.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com