Braves swept by Nationals for season, 12-game skid is longest since ’77

WASHINGTON The free-falling Braves added more ignominy to their crumbling season Sunday with a 8-4 loss to the Nationals that gave them their longest single-season losing streak in 38 year and left them 0-for-Washington for 2015.

Rookie starter Manny Banuelos recorded six outs and was charged with seven runs (six earned) for the Braves, whose 12-game losing streak is their longest within one season since they dropped the first 17 games of the 1977 season. They also lost 12 consecutive games from Oct. 3, 1977 through April 16, 1988.

Nick Markakis doubled to start the game and scored on Nick Swisher’s two-out single for a 1-0 Braves lead, but the Nationals scored five runs in the second inning, including Jayson Werth’s three run homer. Banuelos (1-4) faced two more batters in the third and was charged with two more runs including Bryce Harper’s leadoff homer, his third in three games and sixth against the Braves this season.

The fourth-place Braves remained one game ahead of the last-place Philadelphia in the National League East standings and will face the Phillies in a three-game road series beginning Monday night.

Matt Wisler, who had been scheduled to start Tuesday, instead pitched two hitless innings of relief Sunday, allowing one walk and one hit batter with two strikeouts. The Braves didn’t immediately announce who would who start Tuesday.

The Braves are 3-13 against the Nationals this season with only three games left against them at Turner Field. They lost all 10 games at Nationals Park, the first time the Nationals or their previous incarnation, the Montreal Expos, swept a season series at home against any division opponent since Montreal went 5-0 against the Phillies in a strike-shortened 1981 season.

Before Monday, the last time the Braves were swept by an opponent in nine or more road games was 1990, when they went 0-9 against the Astros in Houston.

The Braves, after trades and injuries, have become the worst team in the majors in the second half and find themselves on the wrong side of a growing list of dubious achievements. They already assured themselves of a losing season when they recorded their 82nd loss on Saturday, their fourth losing season in a quarter-century and first consecutive losing seasons since 97-loss seasons in 1989-1990.

They have an astoundingly awful 12-41 record since their 42-42 start, including 26 losses in 28 road games during that span beginning July 8 at Milwaukee.

The Braves have a 13-game road losing skid that encompasses sweeps in four series at Tampa Bay (two games), San Diego, Chicago and Washington.

Banuelos faced the Nationals for the first time since his auspicious MLB debut July 2, when he allowed two hits and no walks in 5 2/3 innings and go no decision in a Braves win against the Nationals at Turner Field. Since then, the left-hander is 1-3 with a 6.53 ERA in six games (five starts). This was his second start since returning from five weeks on the disabled list.

Banuelos threw 31 pitches in the second inning and continued the trend of Braves pitchers giving up alarming amounts of two-out hits and runs. Michael Taylor had a two-run double with one out, and hit pitcher Joe Ross with a pitch with two outs and a runner on second. Then he got ahead of Werth on a called first strike before throwing three straight balls and then giving up a three-run homer on an 89-mph fastball.

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