Terdoslavich's baserunning blunder costs Braves

WASHINGTON -- Had Braves utility man Joey Terdoslavich been successful with his decision to attempt to tag and advance to second base in the ninth inning of Wednesday night's 2-1, 11-inning loss to the Nationals, he might have simply scored an insurance run that would have gone uncelebrated.

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But because Terdoslavich proved unsuccessful with his decision that could have been deemed either aggressive or downright unnecessary, he was forced to answer how he had played a key role as the Braves suffered their seventh straight loss to the first-place Nationals and fell four games back of Washington in the National League East.

"It wasn't the right play," Terdoslavich said. "The winning run is on third and my run doesn't mean anything. I tried to be aggressive. He made a great throw, but I shouldn't have went."

After being held scoreless through the first eight innings against Jordan Zimmermann, the Braves mounted a ninth-inning rally against Nationals closer Drew Storen, who loaded the bases before recording his first out on Kelly Johnson's game-tying sacrifice fly that Denard Span caught in deep center field.

After Nick Markakis crossed the plate with the tying run, Terdoslavich's attempt to tag and advance to second base was thwarted by Span's strong, accurate throw. Instead of having runners at the corners with one out, the Braves had a runner on third when Andrelton Simmons followed with an inning-ending groundout.

"I thought [Span] was flat-footed and deep in the gap," Terdoslavich said. "I've got to be 100 percent there and obviously I wasn't 100 percent. That can't happen. I felt like my aggressiveness got us in a spot there. …You've got the go-ahead run there and now instead of having to get two outs, they only need to get one."

Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez told reporters that he was not too bothered by Terdoslavich's decision.

"It's an aggressive play," Gonzalez said. "If you make it great, and if you don't make it, then you have to answer the questions at the end of the night. You've got to make a great throw from 180 feet away. So, I'm not overly mad on that one. It's an aggressive baseball play and Span made a helluva throw."