ATLANTA — The Detroit Tigers are the ninth MLB team to reach 40 losses in the 2024 season.

Left-hander Tarik Skubal, the ace of the starting rotation who has been the frontrunner to win the American League Cy Young Award, couldn't save the Tigers in Wednesday's 7-0 loss to the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park.

With their fourth loss in a row, the Tigers (34-40) — swept by the Braves in three games while scoring just two runs across 27 innings in the series — have fallen six games under .500, 12 games back of first place in the AL Central and seven games back of the final spot in the AL wild card.

They're 29-40 since their 5-0 start to the season.

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Skubal had his worst start of the season, allowing five runs (four earned runs) on seven hits and two walks with seven strikeouts across four innings, throwing 83 pitches. He surrendered one home run apiece in the third and fourth innings.

His ERA went from 2.20 to 2.50 after his 15th start. He has surrendered eight of his 25 earned runs in his past two starts, taking his ERA from 1.92 to 2.50.

The Braves took a 1-0 lead in the second inning with an RBI single from Ozzie Albies on a middle-middle curveball, then extended the lead to 3-0 in the third inning with Sean Murphy's two-run home run off Skubal's changeup with two strikes and two outs.

Murphy pushed Skubal's middle-away changeup over the wall in right-center field for a 407-foot home run.

Ramón Laureano jumped Skubal's first pitch in the fourth inning — a middle-in fastball — for a 426-foot solo home run to left-center field, making it 4-0.

It was Laureano's second homer in his 80th at-bat this season.

The Braves increased their margin to 5-0 later in the fourth inning after Skubal plunked Albies, walked Marcell Ozuna and threw the ball away when Albies tried to steal third base.

Skubal — immediately following a mound visit from pitching coach Chris Fetter — threw the ball past third baseman Gio Urshela, allowing Albies to score on the throwing error.

After that, Skubal struck out Matt Olson with a 98.1 mph fastball and Austin Riley with an 88.4 mph changeup to end his 15th start of the season.

He generated 19 whiffs on 46 swings — a 41.3% whiff rate — with five fastballs, seven changeups, six sliders and one sinker, but when the Braves made contact with Skubal's elite changeup, they hit the ball hard for three of their seven hits against him.

Skubal threw first-pitch strikes to 16 of 23 batters.

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Nothing from offense

The Tigers had eight hits and one walk.

All eight hits were singles.

Right-hander Reynaldo Lopez — whom Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos signed as a reliever and turned into a dominant starter — tossed five scoreless innings on seven hits and one walk with six strikeouts, throwing 93 pitches.

Lopez has a 1.57 ERA in 13 starts.

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Facing Lopez, the Tigers had one runner in the first inning, two runners in the second, one runner in the third, two runners in the fourth and two runners in the fifth.

Jake Rogers stranded two runners in the second with a swinging strikeout; Akil Baddoo stranded two runners in the fourth with a lineout; Mark Canha stranded two runners in the fifth with a called-third strikeout.

The Tigers — responsible for scoring three runs in their four-game losing streak — finished 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position in Wednesday's series finale against the Braves.

Mason Englert rocked, too

Right-handed reliever Mason Englert replaced Skubal for the fifth inning.

Adam Duvall — the first batter Englert faced in his earlier-than-expected relief appearance — hit an infield single, advanced to second base on a throwing error by shortstop Zach McKinstry and moved up to third base on a wild pitch.

Then, Murphy smoked Englert's middle-middle sinker for a 423-foot two-run home run to left-center field. The Braves grabbed a 7-0 lead with the completion of Murphy's fourth two-homer game in his 454-game career.

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Englert settled down after the home run.

He allowed two runs on five hits with zero walks and three strikeouts across three innings, throwing 53 pitches. Left-handed reliever Joey Wentz kept the Braves from adding to their seven-run lead with a scoreless eighth inning.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers swept by Atlanta Braves after 7-0 loss in series finale