What You Need To Know For Tonight’s Atlanta Braves Game

Three significant players return to the line-up for tonight’s game as the Atlanta Braves look to avoid a sweep

After losing game one 4-2, the Atlanta Braves dropped the lead in a shocking 8th inning to lose game two 7-3 last night. Tonight, they are looking to get some retribution lead by veteran R.A. Dickey (9-10).

Tonight marks the return of 3 significant players to the lineup who have each had to sit for separate reasons. Ender Inciarte returns to the lead-off spot after leaving Tuesday night with a sore left thumb, a nagging injury that started with a slide last week in Washington.

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Tyler Flowers has been dealing with a bruised left hand. There hasn’t been word that he is 100% but manager Brian Snitker did state they were hoping he would return tonight to catch Dickey.

Ozzie Albies is already back in the line-up as well after taking a pitch to the shin in the 8th last night. Though he was swapped for a pinch-runner, David O’Brien did report that Albies was walking fine after taking the hit.

Matt Kemp won’t be returning yet – or maybe at all this season – after having another issue with his hamstring last Friday. Therefore this allows another start for Lane Adams.

Who wouldn’t want to see more of this:

Dickey’s September outings have not been good ones, lasting no more than 5 innings each time while giving up a total of 16 earned runs! With all this talk that the Braves Front Office is getting more serious about possibly finding a new manager and also trying to find a strong front-end pitcher, this outing may well decide Dickey’s future with Atlanta.

If Dickey can go at least 7 innings while limiting the damage, it would be very helpful to his cause.

The Nationals will send out Tanner Roark (13-9) to start their night. The Braves last saw Roark in game 3 of their last series where Roark pitched 6 innings while giving up only 2 runs in the Braves’ 5-2 loss.

-Side Note- There will most likely be some mention of the incident in New York where a young fan was struck with a foul ball. The incident traumatized and worried a lot of players from both sides and continues to push the call for more netting/protection at games.

The Braves will continue their fan appreciation week and the Braves Retail Twitter continued their giveaway contests also!

It will also be First Responders Night at the game as well. So if you see any heroes out there, maybe give a thanks to them or a hearty hand shake.

Let’s hope the Braves can get some revenge, especially after this tweet by the Nationals last night:

Game starts at 7:35 pm ET. Go Braves!

Next: The Braves Have Some Festivities Coming Up

Tonight will be the final time the Braves face the Nationals this season with the final SunTrust series of the year cranking up against the Phillies starting tomorrow night.