NL WILD CARD SERIES: PHILLIES VS BRAVES

October 1, 2026

Walt Weiss

Truist Park

Atlanta Braves

Postgame Press Conference

Braves 6, Phillies 2

Q. Walt, how much more appreciation -- I know you loved everything about Ray Kerr before that, but how much more do you appreciate who he is and what he did tonight?

WALT WEISS: Yeah. Hopefully Ray Kerr became a bit of a household name tonight. He deserves it. He's got an amazing story, perseverance. Like I said, he's very grateful to be here. He's got a grateful heart, and he was very excited about the challenge tonight. As you saw, he wasn't rattled at all. Looked like a 10-year vet making a start, and he was phenomenal.

Q. Looked like your decision-making tonight, you were comfortable moving Mike up from the 7 spot to the 4 spot. Talk about how that home run was the confidence for --

WALT WEISS: Yeah, the plan was -- Nola is great, man. We've seen him a ton for many years now. He's a great pitcher. But we wanted to load up the lefties and try to go after him and try to get out to a lead.

We knew that Wheeler was lurking, so it was great. It worked out great. Michael gives us a three-run shot early, some add-on homers. I told our guys, man, all year long when the stakes have been the highest, when the challenges have been the toughest, we've been at our absolute best. So it doesn't surprise me that we played the way we did tonight.

Q. Can you walk us through the plan for Chris Sale? Was he originally going to be Schwarber and Harper before the Olson home run, and does anything he did tonight affect how you might use him in the NLDS?

WALT WEISS: First of all, I was not going to go to Chris Sale and ask him if he could pitch tonight. I didn't want to put him in that position because I knew that even if he was hanging, he would tell me yes. So I was not going to bring it up.

But literally as soon as I stepped in my office this afternoon, he was sitting in the chair across from my desk, and he looked at me and he said -- I feel amazing, is what he said. I said, well, let's talk.

We did and we kind of mapped out a plan. I told him he was going to -- there was a good chance he was going to get the top of the order at some point in the eighth or the ninth. It worked out that way. Was hoping he only had to go one, but he had to get to four outs.

But what a warrior, man. This guy -- I've run out of superlatives for Chris Sale. Been talking about him all year. He's one of the best I've ever been around.

When you take everything into consideration, teammate, competitor, performer, work ethic, all those things, he's as good as I've ever been around.

Q. This game there were a lot of questions going into it, who would be the starting pitcher, what would the bullpen look like, who would be in lineup at the DH. It seemed like every one of your decisions worked out in the Braves' favor tonight. Can you walk us through more specifically, how do you actually make those decisions in practice with your team?

WALT WEISS: Well, look, it's not just me. We collaborate on these things. But I've said all along, I'm a big Dom Smith fan. The guy helped us win several games this year. He's another one, great story. Perseverance, same thing.

But like I said earlier, he's a pro, man. He's a professional hitter and he gives you a professional at-bat. The numbers dropped off because he wasn't getting the playing time that he was early, but he still gave us good at-bats.

But look, I said the other day, people say you push the right buttons -- it's all about the players. It always is. It's not the right button unless the players perform. When the players perform, it's the right button.

It's all about them.

Q. How big was the innings from Fuentes and Suarez tonight?

WALT WEISS: Yeah, all of them really. Look, you run the risk when you have a bullpen game that if one guy goes off the rails, it throws a wrench in the plans. But every one of our guys performed tonight.

Yeah, it couldn't have worked out any better. We couldn't have scripted it any better. It was great to see Suarez out there. He looked really good. You're just not sure when a guy has missed that much time, and he threw two innings the last week of the season. You're not sure what you're going to get. He's a marvelous talent, but you just don't know. He looked like Bob Suarez tonight. He looked like the guy, and it was good to see him out there.

Grant Holmes did an outstanding job. Didi, yeah.

Who else threw? Dylan Dodd.

They all got big outs for us, every one of them.

Q. Last few years for this group you've had some early exits in the playoffs. What does it say about the core group of players, your core group of position players for them to get over the hump this time?

WALT WEISS: Yeah, I can't say enough about this group. I've been saying it -- repeating myself. But I said it on day one of Spring Training that it was going to take more than our talent to get to where we wanted to go. We had to have the right mentality. We had to come together. We had to play for each other, all those things that you can't quantify.

But they're game changers, and I always felt all along -- and I was saying this Spring Training, at the end of Spring Training, I felt like we had the right guys on the bus, man. Just the mentality.

Look, at the end of Spring Training after we suffered all those losses, there's nobody on the planet that had us here, nobody. Nobody had us making the playoffs. These guys have overcome so much. Then to boot, at the end of the year, we lose three more starters. We barely have enough starters to play a series, yet it's guys like Ray Kerr and everybody else that step up and perform when the stakes are highest.

It's such a great group.

Q. Do you have a sense of whether Chris can pitch Sunday?

WALT WEISS: Yeah, I don't know. I have no idea. We weren't even worried about that. It's just put this thing down, and then we'll have those conversations later. But yeah, we haven't even talked about that. It was all about tonight.

Q. I wanted to ask you before the game about could he get to Schwarber and Harper the second time. Was that your wish? Was there a pitch count?

WALT WEISS: That was probably best case scenario. I wasn't sure if Ray was going to get there. We had plan B if he didn't.

But that was a best case scenario, and he did it. He got through the top twice, which kept us from using another guy at the top. So Ray -- it all started with Ray. Everything fell into place because of Ray Kerr.

Q. You talked about pushing the right buttons, but it has to be the players that perform. You move Ozzie down and you already talked about Dom. Just the bottom half of the lineup and what they did tonight, can you speak on that?

WALT WEISS: Yeah. I've said before that 8 hole has gotten some guys hot this year, and Ozzie especially. Yeah, for whatever reason. I put a few guys down there when they've been scuffling and they've turned it around. Big home run from Ozzie. He's a big time player, man. He's a free swinger and he's up there hacking. But he's dangerous, and he showed it tonight.

Q. Big series for Ozzie in general. How big is it to have such a longstanding member of the team set the tone like that during a big series?

WALT WEISS: Yeah, I said the other day, Ozzie is one of the guys that's the heart and soul of the club. Been here a long time. 10 years, I believe, at this point. Yeah, he's one of the guys, man. Everyone loves him. He's got a smile on his face at all times. Everyone loves Ozzie, and for good reason. He's a hell of a player.

Q. You just talked about the bottom of the order guys. I felt like regardless of pitching, an unlikely path through would be production from the top of the order and the big hits hadn't really come from those guys in the series. What can you say about the walks ahead of Mike's homer, Matt's homer Ronald, and just that can ultimately propel things going forward for those guys?

WALT WEISS: I thought we put together some great at-bats. Because we are a bit of a free-swinging club, there's times we can make some quick outs and that type of thing, and it doesn't look pretty. But I felt we really put together some great at-bats tonight.

I thought Nola had to really earn every out that he got. And even Wheeler -- Wheeler is unbelievable, but even with Wheeler, he was good tonight and he did his job and I felt we made him earn the outs that he got. And I felt like we did that all night.

Q. Postseason is obviously a different animal than the regular season. What did you learn about your team over the last three days that's going to help you in the next round?

WALT WEISS: It started a long time ago, not the last three days. Literally, we got off to this great start. We came out of the gates April and May, and then June was awful. All we heard was we were giving away the division and all that stuff.

I think the lead went from like 11 to 2 games and then there we go again, we take off. After a tough road trip, we come home, face the Dodgers, sweep them -- every time it looked like we were slipping, we turned it around.

I was talking about this group in Spring Training. Look, this is my ninth year here. I was eight years as a bench coach, so I felt like -- I talked about knowing this club like the back of my hand when Spring Training started. I knew the group. We had a rough year last year. Virtually the same group.

But they got off the mat, man, after a tough year last year, and they're doing this. It speaks volumes about the type of people we have in the room.

Q. You mentioned barely having enough starters to get through a series and some injured guys. Do you expect to have any of them back in the NLDS?

WALT WEISS: Yeah, look, again, I don't know. There's some guys that are probably in the conversation that might -- there's a chance.

But yeah, those conversations are coming.

Q. You were able to get through a three-game series with two starters and an opener. Do you think you're going to be in position to get through a five-game series with enough starters/openers?

WALT WEISS: I think we can readjust our roster and that type of thing. I'm sure there will be some tweaks there with a little bit longer series. Yeah, whoever it is, I'm sure is going to step up, just like everybody else.