ATLANTA -- The Nationals have been one of the hottest teams in baseball, winners of 17 of their previous 22 games entering the opener of a critical four-game series at SunTrust Park on Thursday night. And yet, during this span, they had actually lost ground to the Braves in the National League East, a frustrating reality as Washington’s hopes of snatching a division title are starting to fade.

The Nats’ best chance to turn this into a division race once again started Thursday, when they began a stretch where they will meet the Braves seven times in 11 days in games that could all but decide the NL East title, especially if Atlanta is able to repeat games like this one. Max Fried dominated for seven shutout innings, outpitching Stephen Strasburg, and the Nats mustered only a two-run ninth-inning homer from Victor Robles as they dropped the opener of the series, 4-2.

• Box score

This loss pushed Washington to eight games behind Atlanta in the NL East, its largest deficit in the division since June 29. And the Nats have just 23 games to make up that ground, a climb perhaps even too steep for these Nationals to overcome.

• MLB standings

Yes, this is the team that stormed back from six runs down in the ninth inning Tuesday night to beat the Mets and the team that revived its season after dipping 12 games under .500 near the end of May. So don’t tell manager Dave Martinez that their backs are against the wall in the division.

“Why? We got a lot of games,” Martinez said. “Our backs are not against the wall. We just got to keep playing baseball.”

But the Nationals were already facing a daunting task to attempt to erase this deficit. Only three teams in MLB history (1995 Mariners, 2007 Phillies and 2009 Twins) have overcome a deficit of seven games or more after Aug. 31, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

The good news for the Nationals is they still own a 5 1/2-game advantage over the rest of the field for a spot in the NL Wild Card Game. But the Cubs also drew closer with their win Thursday night, and they trail the Nats by just two games for the top Wild Card slot and home-field advantage in that game. Catching the Braves might still be the goal, but holding off the rest of the competition in the NL is still important as the Nats are in a stretch of 13 consecutive games against division leaders (Braves, Twins, Cardinals).

“It’s cliche, but just one game at a time, take care of what you can take care of, because you can’t make up all the ground in one day,” shortstop Trea Turner said. “You have to do it over the course of the next 25 games or so. Like I always say, if we play our game, if we continue to have fun, if we keep doing the things that we’ve been doing, we’ll be in a good spot.”

But the reality of playing in the NL Wild Card Game is becoming increasingly likely for the Nationals, even though they began this series with an urgency to avoid it.

Martinez has been a part of two Wild Card Games -- both as a bench coach -- with the Rays in 2013 and the Cubs in ‘15. And while his team came away winners on both occasions, that doesn’t mean he has fond memories of having the season reduced to a one-game playoff.

“We want to catch the Braves,” Martinez said prior to the game. “That Wild Card Game is not fun to play in. … We want to catch them. We want to win the division.”

Thursday’s loss made it that much more difficult to pull off.

Elias leaves with hamstring injury

Nationals left-hander Roenis Elias left the game in the eighth inning when he tweaked his right hamstring while pitching to Brian McCann. Elias, who was acquired right before the Trade Deadline, was pitching in just his fourth game for Washington after missing more than three weeks with a right hamstring strain last month. He will likely undergo an MRI on Friday and will be re-evaluated then.