WASHINGTON -- After leading all of baseball in home runs allowed last season, right-hander Josiah Gray posted a significant zero during Spring Training when he did not surrender a single long ball in five starts.

“Being able to limit that is obviously going to take away the biggest negative play for a pitcher,” Gray said after his final start of camp.

However, the first two at-bats of his third Major League season yielded the result Gray worked in camp to avoid. In total, he gave up three home runs in the Nationals’ 7-1 loss to the Braves on Saturday at Nationals Park.

“I think you just have to lock in that much more because [when you’re] playing the Braves, [or] playing a lot of teams in this division, they’re fighting for that first place spot,” said Gray, who allowed five runs off seven hits and two walks while striking out four. “As much as Spring Training is to get your work in, you’re not fighting for first place there. At-bats are more competitive [now]; you have to be that much finer.”

Gray opened the game by working Ronald Acuña Jr. into an 0-2 hole, but Acuña sent the third slider of the at-bat 383 feet into the left-field seats at 106.6 mph. Gray misplaced a pair of fastballs to fall behind 2-0 to Matt Olson on the next at-bat, and when Gray looked to throw a cutter inside, he left it over the middle of the plate instead. Olson took advantage and gave the Braves a quick two-run lead with a 406-foot shot to right-center field. 

“Just a matter of poor location there early in the game,” Gray said. “Got to be better there.” 

The Braves’ third home run of the day off Gray came in the fourth inning, when Marcell Ozuna lifted another cutter in a 2-0 count 429 feet to left-center field. 

“When that happens, we’ve got to understand -- something I talked to [catcher] Keibert [Ruiz] about -- ‘Hey, you’ve got to change it up. Can’t keep letting him do the same thing over and over. Maybe the fastball’s better today, the slider was a little bit better today,’” manager Dave Martinez said. “It’s being young and learning what works and what’s not working.”

Gray, 25, had focused in Spring Training on improving his cutter. Martinez observed the pitch “was kind of flat” on Saturday. Of his 87 pitches against the Braves, Gray worked a mix of 27 curveballs, 22 sliders, 17 cutters, 14 fastballs and seven sinkers. Last season, he turned to his four-seamer for 39.2 percent of his total pitches -- “He can’t run away from the fastball either,” Martinez noted.

“It felt OK,” Gray said of his cutter. “I think just getting in a real game atmosphere [was important]. I’ll just have to continue to bridge that gap of where it is [now]. But I threw some good ones today, [and] threw some poor ones today [too]. Ozuna hit a home run on [a cutter] as well, so just trying to adjust to my sight lines, where I’ve got to throw it and locating the pitch a little bit better.”

After Gray more than doubled his innings count from 2021 to ‘22, the Nationals are looking for him to continue making strides this season. He is taking his 2023 debut as the foundation to build upon as a key member of the starting rotation.

“I think if I was to go out there and throw five, six no-hit innings, I would still say there’s such a long way ahead,” Gray said. “Obviously, today didn’t go my way. But there’s a lot of season left and a lot of starts that I’m going to make -- and a lot of good starts to come. It’s just a stepping stone to the next one.”