Braves 2, Nationals 1: Evan Gattis belted a solo home run and Chris Johnson drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning as visiting Atlanta continued its recent mastery of Washington in the opener of a three-game set.

Jason Heyward drew a pair of walks and scored on Johnson’s flyout while Freddie Freeman went 2-for-4 for the Braves, who defeated the Nationals for the 18th time in the last 24 meetings – including nine of the last 11 in Washington. Luis Avilan (1-0) recorded the final out of the seventh, David Carpenter worked out of a jam by striking out the side in the eighth and Craig Kimbrel fanned a pair during a flawless ninth for his third save.

Anthony Rendon and Ian Desmond each went 2-for-4 for the Nationals, who could not find enough offense to support ailing starter Jordan Zimmermann as he gave up one run and struck out nine over five innings one day after he was scratched from a start due to flu-like symptoms. Tyler Clippard (0-1) yielded Johnson’s sacrifice fly to take the loss.

Washington blew an opportunity to break a scoreless tie in the fourth as Adam LaRoche walked and attempted to score from first base on Ryan Zimmerman’s double off the left-field wall, but shortstop Andrelton Simmons’s relay throw from Justin Upton easily beat LaRoche at home. Gattis made the Nationals pay in the top of the fifth, pounding Zimmermann’s fastball deep into the stands in left-center.

Gus Schlosser relieved Atlanta starter David Hale to begin the seventh and allowed two Washington hitters to reach with one out, enabling Zimmerman to tie the game two batters later with a sacrifice fly. However, Clippard yielded a leadoff walk to Heyward and one-out single to Freeman in the eighth to set the stage for Johnson, who lifted a deep fly to right to plate Heyward.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Desmond had a potential inside-the-park-homer overturned to lead off the fifth when his hit down the left-field line got lodged underneath the padding of the wall in foul territory. Desmond was awarded a double on the play following a seven-minute review, but was caught stealing third base four pitches later. … Kimbrel passed Gene Garber for second place in franchise history with his 142nd career save and is 12 shy of matching John Smoltz for the team record. … The Nationals’ pitching staff has struck out 53 batters over the first four games of the season, including 14 on Friday.