NL WILDCARD GAME: PHILLIES VS BRAVES

October 1, 2026

Walt Weiss

Truist Park

Atlanta Braves

Pregame Press Conference

Q. We all knew Ray was a strong possibility. What was the reason you ended up going with him?

WALT WEISS: Obviously pretty tough left-handed top of the order. Ray has thrown the ball well against these guys, and it's been recent. I think two different outings within a week, three, three-plus each time, scoreless, did a nice job.

Keeps a right-handed starter away from that top of the order for a minute. Ray has thrown the ball really well, done a nice job for us.

Q. Will every one of your pitchers, including Chris, be available for at least one batter tonight?

WALT WEISS: Yeah, all hands on deck. I don't ever divulge who's available, who's not before a game. But yeah, it's an elimination game, so we'll see how these guys feel.

Just check in multiple times before the game starts to see who's feeling good and ready to go.

Q. You mentioned that Ray went three the last two times. Is there a world where he sees those guys twice, or would you just say once?

WALT WEISS: Yeah, it just depends on what it looks like. I would imagine the other day -- I won't speak for the Phillies, but when Luzardo made the start, they probably weren't sure how far he was going to go. But he's throwing the ball well and he kept going.

So it'll be the same type of thing.

Q. Is there an update on Tyler Mahle at all?

WALT WEISS: Tyler is feeling pretty good, all things considered. He can feel it a little bit. But could have been a lot worse. He still feels something. But the fact that he got through the game the way he did, really impressive, because we were scrambling as the game was starting.

I was probably a hitter away from sending the pitching coach out there with the trainer, but then he settled in and threw a hell of a game.

Q. Did you stay up last night to watch the Cubs-Padres game, or what was your process in finding out the time?

WALT WEISS: I think I watched the first couple, three innings and went to bed. I typically wake up about seven or eight times during the course of the evening, so I knew I'd be able to check it before the sun rose, and that's what I did. I think I checked it around 2:30 or so.

Q. When did the idea begin to formulate of using Ray in this manner? Was it before that Marlins series?

WALT WEISS: I would say the last week of the regular season, just starting to look at some scenarios. And, look, we've lost all these starters. We lost three more starters toward the end of the year in Elder and Martin Pérez and Reynaldo López. We started to think a little bit creatively because we knew we might run into something like this.

So it was good. It was good that Ray got that start under his belt.

Q. You obviously want to put your best bats out there, and Dom Smith, we know he only got 16 plate appearances since August 22 or whatever. Why do you think he can deliver there tonight?

WALT WEISS: Yeah, Dom has got a lot of history against Nola. Not saying he's dominated Nola or anything, but he's had his fair share of success against him, a lot of at-bats. A lot of the underlying numbers for Nola favor left-handers against him. Dom has been a big part of our success.

Look, he hasn't had a lot of at-bats recently because when Murph came back, Murph was doing the lion's share of the catching, which made Drake the DH, and Dom was the odd man out.

At the same time, in the latter part of the season, I was using that DH spot to get guys off their feet, Ronald in particular. Several times he was the DH, Albies as the DH. So Dom was the odd man out. But the guy is a professional hitter. He was instrumental in our early season success. He was one of the guys carrying us the first couple months of the season, and his at-bats got limited. Obviously the production was limited.

But even when I've used him as a pinch-hitter, it's almost always a quality at-bat. Tough at-bat yesterday, tough circumstances against a guy throwing 100, but I still felt good about Dom in the box yesterday. He just typically gives you a good -- it's usually a deep count by the time the at-bat is over. He can draw a walk. He uses the whole field. And we just needed a single right there. I thought Dom was our best option to get a single right there.

Like I said, he's a professional hitter.

Q. What was his reaction when you told him he was going to start today, and is there anything you can say to him to try to make it feel like it's --

WALT WEISS: Ray is a pretty easygoing guy. He's got a great story, too, if you haven't seen it. He's overcome a lot of things in his life. He's very grateful to be here and I'm sure really excited about the start.

Q. I know it's your first time managing in the playoffs. You've been in the dugout in a variety of roles for winner-take-all games like this. In your role as a manager, have you talked to anybody else who's managed in these types of games, or do you feel like you've seen enough?

WALT WEISS: I've seen enough. I've been in, I would say, dozens of playoff -- not games, just probably 20 different years I've been in playoffs and six different World Series.

Yeah, I've been around. I've talked about Tony LaRussa a lot. Tony has always been a good sounding board for me. Always has nuggets of wisdom. He usually checks in with me or vice versa a couple times a week. Yeah, he's a good resource for me.

Q. When looking at some of the pitchers who opened for the Braves leading into the postseason, whether it's Kerr or Suter, these are guys who in the past have had some starting pitching experience, how much does that factor in compared to maybe a different reliever who may not have as much?

WALT WEISS: I don't think it's all that big a factor. If you remember back in '21, the World Series, Dylan Lee had the first start of his career in the World Series. I think we used Tucker Davidson maybe to open also, Jesse Chavez opened, I think, in the NLCS that year.

I don't think it's a prerequisite that you had to have been a starter before. They're just coming out of the bullpen and taking down an inning or two or three or whatever they need to do.