ATLANTA -- The Nationals arrived at SunTrust Park this weekend hoping to turn the National League East into a race across the final stretch of the season. For weeks they have been unable to make up any ground in the division, often in frustrating fashion, making these head-to-head matchups with the Braves a chance for the Nats to finally control their own destiny.

Instead, the Nationals have been given a first-hand example of why they have been unable to close the gap on the Braves. After dropping the first two games of this four-game set, including Friday night’s 4-3 loss, their chances of winning the division have eroded into a long shot.

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Washington has dropped four of its past five games for the first time since July 30-Aug. 4 and now trails Atlanta in the NL East by a season-high nine games with 22 games remaining.

“I don’t know, obviously it’s not how we wanted it to go,” left-hander Patrick Corbin said. “We have two more games here. We’re still a confident group here. We know how hot that they have been, and we just [have] to come back tomorrow, and we will. We’ll get over this one and be ready to go. We’re still in a good position to do stuff, so we still have the confidence to do something.”

The Nationals now have a 1 percent chance of catching the Braves in the division, according to Fangraphs’ Playoff Odds, so perhaps they are better off shifting their focus toward hanging onto the top NL Wild Card slot. Washington owns a two-game lead over Chicago for the right to host the Wild Card Game and a 4 1/2-game advantage over the rest of the field.

Their spot is still secure for now, but the Nats also understand they have not wrapped up a trip to October just yet. Especially considering they are in the midst of a stretch of 13 consecutive games against teams leading their division -- Atlanta, Minnesota and St. Louis.

“You just try and win series,” said first baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who hit a three-run homer in the eighth. “Two out of three, three out of four. It’s hard to sweep people, hard to take seven games, especially from a team like [the Braves] that’s a really good team. Obviously we're still trying to win the division and things like that, but I think we're just more focused on game to game and playing good baseball.”

For back-to-back nights, the Braves’ southpaws silenced the Nationals’ red-hot offense.

Max Fried held the Nats to one hit in seven shutout innings on Thursday night. Dallas Keuchel followed him up with an impressive performance of his own Friday night, tossing six scoreless innings to outduel Corbin, who gave up two runs (one earned) in five innings with a season-high six walks and nine strikeouts.

Aside from a homer from Victor Robles in the ninth inning Thursday and Zimmerman’s homer Friday, the Nationals’ offense has been held in check, which is especially surprising given their .824 OPS entering Friday, the second-best mark in the NL.

“Sometimes they're good too,” Zimmerman said. “[Keuchel has] won a Cy Young [Award] and a World Series. Sometimes they're just going to be better. He was really good tonight.”

Catching Atlanta was always going to be an uphill battle. Just three teams in MLB history have erased as big a deficit in the final month as the Nats were facing at the start of this series, but these Nationals have been so good at overcoming adversity for so long that it was fair to dream. Dating back to May 24, Washington has gone 59-31, the second-best record in baseball. The best record since that point, however, now belongs to the Braves, who have gone 60-31.

"Keep fighting,” manager Dave Martinez said. “We're good. They know that. We're exciting, and [the players] never feel like they're out of it. We'll start banging balls again, and this thing will turn around."