Markakis' Streak of Games Without an Error Ends at 398

Atlanta Braves outfielder Nick Markakis made an error during the first inning of Thursday's game against the Washington Nationals, ending his record-setting streak of 398 consecutive games in the outfield without making an error, per ESPN Stats & Info.

The miscue allowed Nationals outfielder Denard Span to advance to second base on a leadoff single and later led to an unearned run on a groundout by Nationals infielder Yunel Escobar.

Markakis' previous error came back on Aug. 10, 2012, while he was playing for the Baltimore Orioles. He recently set an MLB record for an outfielder when he made it to 393 straight games without an error, breaking the old mark of 392 set by Darren Lewis to start his career between 1990 and 1994, per Ian Denomme of Yahoo! Sports.

Despite the record and his two Gold Gloves (2011 and 2014), Markakis isn't universally recognized as one of the game's top defensive right fielders—largely because his performance in advanced metrics has been inconsistent.

In his first Gold Glove season (2011), for example, he finished just 15th among 18 qualified right fielders in ultimate zone rate per 150 games (UZR/150), according to FanGraphs.

Although that ranking was fairly typical of his later years in Baltimore, the 31-year-old is eighth among 21 qualified right fielders in UZR/150 this season after finishing fourth out of 16 last year, per FanGraphs.

He may still draw occasional criticism for playing overly conservative defense to avoid mistakes, but it seems Markakis has struck a nice balance the past two years.