And so it ends. Atlanta had a 10.5 game lead on August 25th and and couldn't hold it. This one was as gut wrenching as a regular season game can get. This sucks.

Philadelphia opened the scoring in the top of the first inning, as Hunter Pence walked with two outs and scored on a double from Ryan Howard to make it a 1-0 game.

The Braves responded in the bottom of the first inning. Michael Bourn singled and then stole second. He advanced to third on a ground out from Martin Prado and scored on a sacrifice fly from Chipper Jones to tie things up at one.

Joe Blanton left after two innings, and gave way to Cole Hamels in the bottom of the third. With runners on first and second with no outs, Atlanta attempted a double steal with Chipper at the plate. Bourn appeared to be safe at third but was ruled out, and it looked like the Braves had run themselves out of the inning.

Luckily, Dan Uggla followed with a two-run homer, his 36th of the season, and made it a 3-1 game in favor of the Braves.

The score held until the top of the seventh inning, as a Raul Ibanez double and Placido Polanco single put runners on first and third with one out. Carlos Ruiz reached on an error by Jack Wilson, allowing Ibanez to score and cutting the Braves lead to 3-2.

Hudson left after that, finishing with a line of 6.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, and 4 K.

The rest after the jump..

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Another key game, another bad loss. The Phillies battered Braves starter Derek Lowe and Atlanta's bats were nowhere to be found as Philadelphia beat Atlanta 7-1. 

Lowe struggled from the start, giving up a first inning home run to Chase Utley to make it a 1-0 game early. 

Philly added to its lead in the third inning, as Carlos Ruiz doubled to start the frame and Roy Oswalt reached on a sacrifice bunt that advanced Ruiz to third. Jimmy Rollins followed with a single, scoring Ruiz to make it a 2-0 game and putting runners on first and second.

Back-to-back sacrifice flies advanced Oswalt to third and scored him to up the lead to 3-0. 

Shane Victorino singled to start the top of the fourth inning, and he advanced to third on a single from Raul Ibanez. Victorino came in to score on a sacrifice fly from Placido Polanco. Polanco's fly ball upped the Phillies lead to 4-0.

Rollins singled to start the fifth inning and chased Lowe from the game. Lowe finished with a line of 4 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 2 K.

Arodys Vizcaino followed in relief of Lowe and gave up a two-run homer to Hunter Pence two batters later. Pence's blast made it a 6-0 game. 

Rollins added a home run off Julio Teheran in the seventh inning to make it a 7-0 game. Martin Prado homered in the bottom of the ninth, a solo shot, to keep Atlanta from being shutout. 

St. Louis and Houston are currently tied at 5 in the fifth inning in Houston, so let's go Astros. 

Well, this one hurt. Atlanta jumped out to an early lead but couldn't hold off the Phillies and lost 4-2. 

The Braves got the scoring going in the bottom of the first against Philly starter Cliff Lee, as Chipper Jones launched his 18th home run of the season into the left field seats to make it a 1-0 game.

Atlanta plated another run in the second inning, as Matt Diaz doubled and scored on another double from Alex Gonzalez to up the Braves lead to 2-0.

The Phillies finally scratched across a run against Randall Delgado in the fourth inning. Back-to-back singles to Hunter Pence and Ryan Howard and a walk to Shane Victorino loaded the bases with one out. After a Raul Ibanez pop-out, Placido Polanco singled to center, scoring Pence and cutting the lead to 2-1.

The rest after the jump.

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Bases loaded, no outs...you have to score.

That's exactly what the Braves didn't do in a gut-wrenching 3-0 loss to the Nationals.

The opportunity came in a scoreless tie in the third inning after David Ross singled and Nationals starter Ross Detwiler walked both Jack Wilson and Mike Minor with the top of the order behind them. Two shallow fly balls and a ground out later, the game was still tied.

The offense failing in the third inning led to a Wilson Ramos home run in the fourth; that was the only run Minor allowed in 4.2 innings. The Braves put together another scoring opportunity in the fifth with two runners in scoring position and only one out, but again failed.

Michael Morse hit a two-run homer in the seventh, sealing another Braves loss.

The only silver lining from the game was Kris Medlen's first game back from Tommy John surgery. He tossed a perfect eighth inning.

The top four hitters in the Braves lineup went 0 for 16 with five strikeouts.

The Wild Card lead is down to one heading to the final series of the season.

Chien-Ming Wang had never beaten the Braves in four previous starts against them, so Braves fans who were optimistic about this game had good reason to be. Unfortunately for them, the offense was nonexistent and the Braves lose to the Nationals 4-1.

When the Braves went down in order on eight pitches in the first, that may have been an indication the game wouldn't go well for them. In the second inning, Brandon Beachy issued a pair of one-out walks before giving up a run-scoring single to rookie Chris Marrero.

The way the Braves were hitting in the game, what happened in the fourth made any comeback seem out of reach. Ryan Zimmerman singled leading off and Jayson Werth walked with one out when Danny Espinosa drove home both following a wild pitch with a hit to center. Then with two outs, Wang, 0 for 32 as a hitter with 18 strikeouts and no RBI, singled home another run.

Freddie Freeman hit his 21st home run of the season, but the offense otherwise looked helpless against Wang in six innings, managing only four hits and striking out four times; three of the strikeouts were looking. Beachy walked four and struck out nine in six innings.

The closest the Braves came to scoring again was in the eighth when Brooks Conrad walked with one out and went to third on Michael Bourn's single, but Bourn was caught stealing on a questionable call and Martin Prado flied out to end the threat. This was the only inning where the Braves managed to put two runners on base.

St. Louis won, cutting Atlanta's Wild Card lead back to two with four to play.

The Braves moved ever closer to a playoff spot, beating Stephen Strasburg and the Nationals 7-4.

Tim Hudson had a 3-0 lead before he even took the mound. Three straight singles in the first inning with one out plated the first run. Freddie Freeman drove in another one with a single to center and the third scored thanks to Ryan Zimmerman's error on Jack Wilson's grounder.

Wilson Ramos singled home a run in the second, but aside from that, Hudson was brilliant through the first five innings, striking out four while allowing five hits.

Strasburg exited after four innings, and the Braves offense went to work against the Washington bullpen. Collin Balester walked two in the fifth before surrendering a run-scoring double to Dan Uggla. Balester was replaced with Atahualpa Severino and he promptly allowed a two-run double to Brian McCann.

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The Braves couldn't figure out their old teammate as the Marlins flipped the script on the Braves tonight. After a big 4-0 win last night, the Braves lost by the same score tonight. Javy Vazquez was terrific for the Fish, and despite an above average start by D-Lowe, there was really no contest at Sun Life Stadium tonight.

Vazquez retired the first ten batters that he faced on the night before Prado was able to line a good pitch off of the plate into right field in the fourth. Atlanta mustered up a threat in the seventh behind a big Jason Heyward double off of the top of the left center field wall with McCann aboard, and again in the ninth behind two Leo Nunez walks, but never managed to send any runners across the plate.

Derek Lowe pitched just fine, but it wasn't going to cut it against tonight's opponent. A big double by Mike Stanton in the second inning drove in the Marlins first run. A Brett Hayes homer in the fifth, a sac fly in the sixth, and a LoMo homer in the eighth accounted for the Marlins' final three runs. None of which mattered.

The Braves will now have to do their best against the pesky Nationals beginning Friday, sending Huddy to the mound against Stephen Strasburg. The Mets still lead the Cardinals 4-3 as of right....NOW.

After what was clearly one of the most discouraging losses the Braves have suffered this season, the team managed to bounce back tonight to beat the Fish by a score of 4-0. Prior to the game, I was thinking that someone needed to light a fire under the team and get them almost angry that they had let the wild card lead shrink to just 2.5 games. But in the limited video clips of the dugout prior to the game, it looked as though the team was looser and having more fun than in the past several outings. Maybe that is what the team needs, because it sure worked tonight.

The Braves did three fourths of their damage in the second inning against Anibal Sanchez. Alex Gonzalez belted the first pitch that he saw into left center field to put the Braves on the board. This was quite a relief after the Braves spoiled a golden opportunity in the first inning when Atlanta had two men in scoring position with no outs. After Heyward legged out a double, Bourn drove him in with a double of his own to make the score 2-0 Braves, and took third without a throw. Martin Prado then dribbled his second of three hits on the night up the middle to score Michael Bourn. Freddie Freeman added on some insurance with a solo shot to straightaway center in the top of the sixth.

Randall Delgado earned his first career win and was great in a start that very few would disagree was the biggest of his young career. Delgado got into some trouble during his five innings, but it was usually with two outs and pitched out of it each time. He finished with a line of five innings pitched, five hits, two walks, and no runs. Cristhian Martinez pitched a perfect two innings, which has become customary recently, and Anthony Varvaro had no trouble shutting the door on the Marlins in the eighth and ninth innings.

The Braves left eleven men on base tonight and hit just 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position, so some of the old habits are still present, but what matters is the Braves got a win behind some great pitching both from Delgado and the bullpen. This all occurred on a night that St Louis is currently behind against the Mets. Hopefully the Braves feel more confident, and feel as if they've stabilized themselves a bit, after such a tough one last night.