Atlanta Braves at Houston Astros preview: Alex Wood back in the bigs

Thanks to a memorable night from the brothers Upton, the Atlanta Braves took the first game of their three-game series against the Houston Astros 3-2. Tonight, Atlanta will have Alex Wood back in the majors on the hill against Collin McHugh.

It will be great to see Wood back with the team and back as a starter, and according to Carroll Rogers of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Wood is bringing back his changeup as well:

"Wood had spent six weeks in the Braves bullpen after Floyd returned from Tommy John surgery. He’s acknowledged that he’s more comfortable in a starting role, and he thinks the time in Gwinnett’s rotation allowed him to continue to get a better feel for his change-up again.That’s a pitch that has been Wood’s primary “out” pitch over the course of his career, but one that he lost a feel for after he put so much emphasis on refining his breaking ball.Wood began throwing a knuckle curve, similar to the one thrown by Craig Kimbrel and Jonny Venters, and had seen good results with it earlier this year. But it wasn’t until his final relief appearance on June 8 in Arizona that he started to get his feel back for his change-up."

Along with Julio Teheran, Wood has one of the better repertoires on the team, and if his change-up is back, any fan of the Atlanta Braves should be excited. For the Astros, Collin McHugh has done an excellent job. He’s got a 9.92 K/9 to go along with a 3.44 BB/9 in addition to a 2.76 ERA.

Here are the particulars for tonight’s game:

Date: June 25, 2014

Start Time: 8:10 pm ET

TV Channel: SportSouth

Radio: 680 AM/106.7 FM (Local in Atlanta), Full list of Local Affiliates

Live Stream: MLB.tv (Click Here, $)

Be sure to follow us on Twitter (@ATLBeatBlog) for more information (including all of your Atlanta Braves action), and check back after the game for a full recap. Sound off in the comments!