ATLANTA -- As R.A. Dickey has spent a little more than a decade dealing with the reality that he can lose a feel for the knuckleball as quickly as he can regain it within a start, he has come to appreciate the kind of patience Braves manager Brian Snitker showed when he allowed the veteran pitcher to battle through six stressful innings during Tuesday night's win over the Mets.
While dealing with a sore left quad muscle and a knuckleball that he rated a four on a scale of 1-10, Dickey surrendered a pair of home runs through the first three innings and then put two on before recording his first out in the fifth inning.