NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES VS DODGERS

October 4, 2026

Walt Weiss

Dodger Stadium

Atlanta Braves

Postgame 2 Press Conference

Braves - 3, Dodgers - 2

Q. Congratulations on the win. Talk about getting the split here. I know that's obviously you like to win both, but getting the split here, how important do you feel that is?

WALT WEISS: Yeah, huge. Getting the split in this place against these guys, yeah, it's awesome.

Look, yesterday we talked about our pen being not at full strength and not chasing -- not being in position to chase a game from behind yesterday. I think losing the way we did yesterday allowed us to do what we did tonight and gain the split.

Look, you want to win every game obviously. We also have to think about how to win a series. So you have to take all those things into consideration.

Q. What did you see out of Fuentes in particular that allowed you to be a little more aggressive than maybe you would have been?

WALT WEISS: It wasn't the plan, believe me. When I went to him in the sixth, I was thinking I've got to get the last four innings between him and Iglesias. To be honest with you, I thought it would probably be most likely two and two, but Didi was throwing the ball so well, I didn't want to mess with that.

After his third inning, I looked at our pitching coach, let's see how he feels. If he feels good enough, I want to send him back out. I didn't want to mess with a good thing. He was throwing the ball really well.

Look, Iglesias is one of the best closers in the game. Like I said, I just didn't want to mess with a good thing. I was going to give him one base runner. It was hitter to hitter in the ninth. He happened to get two quick outs. I was going to Iglesias the first hitter that got on.

Yeah, gave up the homer to Muncy, and that obviously was time. But I don't want to get in the way of a good thing.

Q. You mentioned the need to win the series. Based on what your relievers were able to do for you tonight, how does your game plan for the series change going back to Atlanta?

WALT WEISS: We're in a good position. We've got Chris Sale lined up after a split here and then going to Sale.

Look, we've got to face more Cy Young Award winners for them. Everyone on their -- every starter on their staff is a Cy Young guy. It doesn't get any easier, but I like the fact that we go back home even and we have Chris Sale.

Q. On a night when the top four guys in your lineup were a little bit quieter, how big was this performance from Michael Harris?

WALT WEISS: Michael had a great game, man. He had a great game. Postseason, you never know what's going to happen. There's no blueprint. There's no playbook. There seems to always be unsung heroes in the postseason.

Michael has been a good player all year. He's had a helluva year for us. But especially the top half of our lineup, it's really good. It's dangerous. If those guys have a quiet night, most likely it's going to be someone else, and tonight was Michael Harris.

Q. With that fifth-inning jam, Suarez getting out of that, how big was that for him, and how does that change your perspective?

WALT WEISS: It was huge. Look, Suarez has been out for three months with an elbow issue, and he threw two innings the last week of the regular season, and he looked good. He gave up a run, I think, in each outing, but the ball was coming out well.

So there's a little bit of unknown there with Suarez coming into this -- the postseason, the Phillies series and now this one. But you know the upside is huge. He looked in -- he looked like vintage Suarez tonight. He was throwing the hell out of the ball, and that was a huge spot right there -- first and second, nobody out -- to come in and put that inning down and keep it scoreless, that was huge by Suarez.

Q. With Ray Kerr obviously a remarkable story for himself, being this big stage, how special is that moment?

WALT WEISS: Yeah, Ray Kerr is amazing, man. He did it again and again. I thought it would be a shorter leash tonight because 47 pitches, two days off, we hadn't done anything like that. But same thing, he was throwing well. So I went as long as I felt like we could with Ray because he's throwing the ball so well.

He did it again for us, just amazing. Like I said, there always seems to be some unsung heroes in the postseason. Yeah, Ray's definitely one of them.