Brandon Williamson will start the Cincinnati Reds' last home game in 2024

The Cincinnati Reds host the Atlanta Braves tonight for the first game of a short three-game series in town, followed by a visit from the Pittsburgh Pirates over the weekend. Combined, these will be the last six games played at Great American Ball Park this year, as the Reds, as you know, will not make the playoffs (again).

Tonight at 6:40 p.m. ET, Brandon Williamson will be on the mound, making a pretty good case that he should be part of the team's Opening Day lineup next year. Since returning from a shoulder issue, he's allowed just 3 ER in 13.0 IP, throwing strikes and limiting baserunners to a decent 0.77 WHIP, in an extremely small sample size.

Someone will have to step in behind Hunter Greene and Rhett Lowder in the rotation next year. Given the injury history of Nick Lodolo, Andrew Abbott, Graham Ashcraft, Williamson and even Greene, there's a lot for the front office to sort out in that regard this winter. Williamson could certainly go a long way toward complicating that by putting on a showpiece tonight against the Braves, a club that's going through its own injury issues while trying to climb back into one of the National League's wild card spots.

Currently, Atlanta is one game behind the New York Mets for the final playoff spot. With Reynaldo Lopez out injured, they will send reliever Grant Holmes to the mound, so if the Reds can get the offense rolling early, it's likely this will be a bullpen-only game.

Let's play some baseball, GABP style, in one final week of this year.

Lineups below!