ATLANTA -- With Saturday’s 6-4 loss to the Braves at Truist Park, the Nationals dropped their sixth straight -- their longest streak of the season.

They got out to a lead in the first when Lane Thomas hit a leadoff triple and scored on a sacrifice fly, but the Braves tied the game in the bottom of the inning, thanks to Austin Riley’s sacrifice fly that plated Ronald Acuña Jr. Atlanta then captured the lead in the second, with Marcell Ozuna and Acuña smashing a pair of two-run homers against MacKenzie Gore.

“Just one bad inning,” manager Dave Martinez said. “What I loved was the fact that MacKenzie came back out there and retired 10 in a row. … That's kind of what we're looking for. If we can keep it right there, it's good. All it was really [was] a conversation about being on the offensive, not afraid to throw strikes [and] get ahead of hitters, and he did that.”

Gore, 24, settled in after the rough start, holding the Braves hitless and scoreless in his last three innings. Martinez has emphasized with his young starters to get ahead in counts, and the southpaw did, throwing 17 first-pitch strikes to the 20 batters he faced. Gore threw 82 pitches (55 strikes) and finished the evening with three strikeouts, allowing five runs on four hits and one walk in five innings.

“Just did a better job of executing,” Gore said. “The homers were just not great pitches. I have to be better -- I keep saying that, but I just got to be a little better. We finished strong, and we're on to the next one. But understanding I got to do a better job of keeping the ball in the ballpark."

With Gore’s performance, Washington’s batters were left to embark on a comeback. But the Nationals scored just one run in the last four innings on Stone Garrett’s ninth-inning home run. They put 31 balls in play but went 9-for-34 with most of their contact leading to groundouts, flyouts and popouts.

“We have to start getting the ball up in the zone and being aggressive early in counts,” Martinez said. “I think we're trying to see too many pitches, taking too many balls in the zone and being on the defensive. It's hard to hit, but when you get to 0-2, it's really hard to hit.”

After Thomas' two-run double in the fifth inning, the Nationals had momentum, and they nearly capitalized on it in the sixth. Down by two runs, Joey Meneses and Jeimer Candelario hit back-to-back singles off Braves pitcher Jared Shuster to lead off the inning.

But Atlanta replaced Shuster with reliever Jesse Chavez, who struck out two batters, forced a groundout to end the inning and dampened Washington’s hope of coming back.

This month, the Nationals have five players -- Meneses, Alex Call, Luis García, Thomas and Dominic Smith -- with at least five hits. All of those batters, except for Smith, have a batting average of .286 or higher in June.

While the hitting is there, the team's flaw has been the lack of scoring. Washington finished 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position on Saturday. During their losing streak, the Nationals are 6-for-32 with runners in scoring position and have averaged three runs per game -- a dip from their season average of 4.2.

“It's a long year, and I think we just have to keep hanging with it,” Thomas said. “And eventually, some of those [balls in play] will start falling. We can get some wins against guys like this, so hopefully that happens in the future. ...

“Just got to start doing a better job -- moving guys and the situational hitting. [We have to start] driving guys in, because that's what the good teams do.”

Despite the loss, Martinez is proud of how his team battled. Now, the Nationals will look to win the series finale on Sunday.

“Just come out with some energy,” Thomas said. “It's easy to look up and just keep tugging along and not really have the energy to go out and be competitive and aggressive. And I think that's the most important part. So try to get everybody going and bring some energy every day.”