Thursday’s game drew Braves’ highest local TV rating of season

The Braves’ Josh Donaldson (20) and Freddie Freeman celebrate their 4-2 win over the Washington Nationals at SunTrust Park on Thursday night.

Credit: Kevin C. Cox

Credit: Kevin C. Cox

The Braves’ Josh Donaldson (20) and Freddie Freeman celebrate their 4-2 win over the Washington Nationals at SunTrust Park on Thursday night.

The Braves drew their largest local TV audience of the season for Thursday night's win over the Washington Nationals.

The game’s 5.9 rating in the Atlanta TV market was the highest of any Braves telecast this year on Fox Sports South or Fox Sports Southeast. About 138,000 local households watched on average.

The game was not, however, the most watched sports event in the Atlanta TV market Thursday night. NBC’s telecast of the NFL season opener between the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears drew an 11.0 rating in Atlanta, equaling an audience of about 257,000 local homes.

For the season, Braves telecasts on Fox Sports South/Southeast are averaging a 3.61 rating in the Atlanta market, up from 3.27 at the same point last year.

The rating is the percentage of TV households watching a particular program or event on average.