NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES VS DODGERS

October 5, 2026

Walt Weiss

Truist Park

Atlanta Braves

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Walt, as that went on last night, as the game went on, you had to make a plethora of moves, and obviously they all worked, pushed all the right buttons. At the end of a night like that, how satisfying is it? I know you're focused on Game 3 now, but when you sit back and think about how the plan materialized, how satisfying was that?

WALT WEISS: No, it is. Satisfying winning a game and coming out with a split against the world champs at their place. Yeah, it was a grind getting through that game, but the bottom line is our relievers came in and pitched great.

Wasn't sure exactly how that whole thing was going to unfold. I wasn't planning on Didi going that long. I figured, when I went to Didi in the sixth, that I was going to try to finish the game with him and Iggy. I just assumed it would probably be two and two, but Didi was throwing the ball so well that I didn't want to mess with that.

No, it's satisfying. We took a lot of shots at how we approached that game, but in the end it all worked out. Ray Kerr was great again.

Q. Was there any consideration at any point maybe move Chris back to Game 4 and Tyler for Game 3?

WALT WEISS: We've had all these conversations, but yeah, look, we're not done talking. As we sit here, we're looking at Sale for Game 3.

Q. What do you think it would take for -- as you see Ronald's at-bats, where do you see him right now as opposed to where he was when he was going really well there in September?

WALT WEISS: Look, with Ronald, like I said all along, every time he steps in the box, he might do something special. Now, we had opportunity last night, the bases loaded, and you're not always going to come through, but I don't worry about him just because the talent is so big that it's going to show up.

Q. You just made kind of a grin when you said you took some shots about the bullpen usage. Does it give you that much more satisfaction to know -- look, we know what we're doing, don't worry about it sort of sense?

WALT WEISS: The other day -- we know our club pretty well. I would think better than most. Look, I know it's professional sports, man, and in professional sports, you're only a success really in the moment that you're having success, that's it. Then you have to do it all over again.

That's why you've got to be mentally tough, man, if you want to sit in my seat, Alex's seat, because it can get pretty vicious out there. I have all the trust in the world in Alex, and I think he trusts me. It's been a good partnership.

Q. Walt, you've been around the game a long time. You've seen a lot of great relievers. You've seen the impact that they can make on the postseason as well. 2021 was a pretty great example of that. As you look at the group that you put together this year, how would you kind of size up just how it came together over time? I know bullpens are a fluid situation, Didi proving himself, you've got Iglesias, you handled the injuries, those kinds of things. How would you assess the overall confidence of this group as you head into October to do the kinds of things it's done?

WALT WEISS: I've said it many times, our bullpen has been our most consistent strength, but the personnel has changed quite a bit. You think about the bullpen we broke camp with, it's very different now.

The back end is still intact, but there's been different personnel as the year has gone on. They've always done the job. I feel like, especially once we got Suarez back, it's probably the strongest our bullpen has been all year.

There's been some pleasant surprises honestly. Ray Kerr wasn't even on our radar this year, and look at the impact he's having. You mentioned Didi, a starter that was -- a young starter that was struggling in that role a little bit, got sent back out, and he comes back to us and evolves into one of the best relievers in the game.

Suarez -- that was huge to see from Suarez last night. Look, coming into the postseason, we weren't really sure what we were going to get there. Obviously extremely talented and unbelievable track record, but you miss three months and you pitch two innings the last week of the season to prepare for a postseason, there's a lot of unknowns there.

But I think he made a statement last night with how he threw the ball, and that was -- you could make a case that was maybe the turning point of the game right there when he came in and put that inning down with first, second, nobody out.

Our bullpen's been -- like I said, it's been our strength all year even though the personnel has changed. I think last night it was on display how good our bullpen is.

Q. Could you say that obviously -- well, maybe it was best for Chris to pitch Game 3 anyhow because, if he would have gone regular rest last night, the question is, okay, how good is he going to be on regular rest? So do you kind of feel like maybe you're in an even better position now regardless of whether he pitched in Game 3 but even if he just pitched Game 1 and came back on regular rest, he may not have been as good as he is now?

WALT WEISS: That was the thought. If you have Sale in Game 2 and Game 5, as people were screaming about, we saw it as you're getting a diminished Chris Sale twice at that point. We wanted to get a full-strength Chris Sale, and that's Game 3. Then possibly impacting the game in Game 5 like we saw in the Phillies series.

That's what it came down to. We didn't want to have a somewhat diminished Chris Sale twice because it would have been -- it was regular rest, but he had the outing in between, and it just didn't make sense to us.

In the end, yeah, as we sit here today, it's the best-case scenario that we could possibly have. Now we win the game, we win the bullpen game, and now we have a fresh Chris Sale ready to go.

Q. Just kind of getting back to Suarez, is that about as -- of the four appearances, that's the one that's kind of closest to who he was in April through June?

WALT WEISS: Yeah, I agree. Look, adrenaline will do that for you too. It's just a different animal in the postseason, and that was really good to see. Like I said, he made quite a statement last night with that outing.