The Atlanta Braves are pretty confident in their abilities in winning the NL Wild Card this season and have dreams of making a deep playoff run, maybe even making it to the World Series. That may be, but no one said that path should be made easy for them and the Washington Nationals are intent on making it as hard as possible for their NL East rivals.
With the help of four home runs from four different Nationals Tuesday night the Nats cleaned the clock of the Braves 9-2 in front of a crowd at Turner Field. On Wednesday they will be looking to duplicate that success and hopefully pour it on more for another victory. Ryan Zimmerman, Michael Morse, Laynce Nix and Danny Espinosa all hit long balls on Tuesday and they are back Wednesday night for more. Added to the Nationals line-up and hitting second is Jayson Werth who will be playing center field. Werth has spent the last two days getting over a sore hand and foot.
Catcher Wilson Ramos is still feeling ill so Jesus Flores will fill in for him once again. Flores' battery mate will be pitcher John Lannan (8-10, 3.59 ERA) who will be looking to redeem himself after his last start where he delivered a quality outing, but still ended up with the loss after giving up two runs to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Lannan will be facing Atlanta's Derek Lowe (8-12, 4.63 ERA).
First pitch is at 7:05 P.M.
Nationals Line-Up
1. Ian Desmond, SS
2. Jayson Werth, CF
3. Ryan Zimmerman, 3B
4. Michael Morse, LF
5. Laynce Nix, RF
6. Danny Espinosa, 2B
7. Chris Marrero, 1B
8. Jesus Flores, C
9. John Lannan, SP
Braves Line-Up
1. Michael Bourn, CF
2. Martin Prado, LF
3. Brian McCann, C
4. Dan Uggla, 2B
5. Chipper Jones, 3B
6. Matt Diaz, RF
7. Freddie Freeman, 1B
8. Alex Gonzalez, SS
9. Derek Lowe, SP