NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES VS DODGERS

October 6, 2026

Walt Weiss

Truist Park

Atlanta Braves

Pregame 3 Press Conference

Q. Yamamoto's reverse splits kind of probably influenced your lineup today, putting a lot of righties in there. How valuable is it to have Yaz and Rowdy available to pop them in just at the right time?

WALT WEISS: No, exactly. We've had that the first couple of games of the series with the left-handed starters. It's nice to have a couple of weapons over there, for sure.

Q. You won 94 games, you take 5-of-6 against them in the regular season, you're split out. Are you surprised at all -- lack of respect is not the word -- but just all the doubters out there, are you okay with just proving people wrong?

WALT WEISS: I think when you look at our season as a whole, we got to the end of Spring Training, and during Spring Training we lost four starters. So, no, the projections I saw on, like, March 25th, I don't think anybody had us making the playoffs.

I think the narrative obviously shifted when we got off to a good start. But then when we had the rough June, people jumped off the train again. It's kind of been that way. And look, I get it with the injuries we suffered over the course of the season.

It's been an amazing season for us. There's been so many opportunities created because of these injuries, and guys have flourished that have gotten these opportunities. I can go right down the list. There's several of them.

And that's been the story of our season. We've had these guys that weren't really on the radar when we broke camp in the spring and ended up making a huge impact. And there's, like I said, several of them.

So I get. That's been the narrative. I don't think anybody's believed it all the way through, outside this building. As soon as we would slip, they'd just say, aha, I told you so. And then here we come again. That's been the way the season's gone.

Q. You talk about guys who weren't on the radar back in Spring Training, the trade deadline brings over Tyler Mahle. Everyone knows the injury woes that the rotation has had to try to weather over the course of this year. Just how valuable has he been and how surprised have you been about just exactly how good he has been in a Braves uniform?

WALT WEISS: Yeah, it changed our rotation. I mean changed a lot of things when he came over here.

I think I've talked about this as it relates to Mahle, Alex and his team, they do a really good job of identifying these types of guys. He had an injury this year. When he got healthy again, he was throwing the ball well. They recognized that. They also thought there were some things with his pitch mix that we could tweak a little bit.

Look, everyone's got smart people. It's not just us. So we haven't cornered that market. Alex has really been good at just identifying those types of guys that fit well here. I think that's important. It's not just about chasing talent. It has to fit.

And Mahle has been unbelievable. We could never have anticipated it would be this good. But it has been, and it's changed our rotation, really.

Q. How big has it been to get Michael Harris continue to perform like this at such a high level, moving from the regular season to the postseason?

WALT WEISS: Yeah, I think Michael had a great rookie year, but I think this is the most consistent season he's had. And it's not only on the offensive end. It's Gold Glove defense. He's had an amazing year for us, and it continues.

He's still playing really well through the postseason. So a big reason why we're here.

Q. You said a minute ago about Tyler, when you bring guys in from the outside it's not just about talent, it's about how they fit well here. What makes a guy fit well here?

WALT WEISS: I think he's got to fit with the other pieces. It's got to complement the other pieces. I think we have a great culture here. I think that clubhouse, that room is really good.

Our best players are pros and that raises the bar in the room.

But I think people come here. I've seen it for years -- I played here and I saw this -- guys just come here and more times than not they perform better. And I think that has to do with the room, the room in there, and the culture we have here.

I talked about having -- the ideal culture is one that's loose and fun but focused. It's exactly what these guys are. The outsiders, when they come in it makes them feel comfortable. But I can't explain it totally but guys just seem to come here and play better.

Q. Chris said he thinks maybe Ronald may be pressing, may be trying too hard. Have you kind of seen that? And do you think him fouling that ball off his leg has had any linger effects?

WALT WEISS: No, the foul ball, no lingering effects.

I just think look, I just think it's the ebbs and flows of a season where guys get hot and cold. And the same thing happens in the postseason.

He's one of those guys that's one swing away from doing something really spectacular. So I don't try to overthink it too much. It's going to happen at some point.

Q. You obviously talked a lot about your pitching plans and what goes into all that. But bigger picture, when you're navigating a series like this, how much, when you're mapping out games 2, 3 and 4, do you have to be cognizant of a plan for five or a plan down the road? Or is it just win tonight and cross that bridge if you get to that?

WALT WEISS: I think it depends on some different certain circumstances, the state of your bullpen -- obviously the focus is on winning that game that day. But it can change depending on your circumstances.

Like in Game 1, we didn't have a full bullpen. So going into that game, we knew we couldn't chase from behind. Just couldn't do it, because it would have left us shorthanded the next day if we had the lead. So we do what we did in Game 1 and Game 2 we had a full rack, and it allowed us to do the bullpen game.

It just depends on where you're at at that particular anoint time. You've got to be careful looking too far in front of the future because it's a task at hand always.

But there's some times -- obviously that happens a lot during the regular season. That's part of the daily in the regular season.

But in postseason most of the time you're focused on that game. But every once in a while, because of the circumstances, you may have to think a little bit differently.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about down in the bullpen, you don't always get a chance to bring in a guy to start an inning. It's not clean. It's a little bit messy sometimes when they come in. The communication of how guys are ready and how they get themselves hot in time to actually come in in that, that's not something that's really talked about a lot.

WALT WEISS: Yeah, it's a process, right, to get a guy in the game. You can't push a button and he's on the mound. You don't want guys unnecessarily getting hot in the bullpen and not coming in the game. Then you've got to do it again later. That's not a good thing. So the timing has to be impeccable.

And you don't want to be late. You certainly don't want to be late.

J.P. Martinez, our bullpen coach, done an outstanding job. Him and Hef communicate throughout the game. And there are some times I might just look at Hef and say, call down there and tell him to have so-and-so on red alert. That doesn't mean he's up and throwing. He's just on red alert. Whatever that means to them.

So there's definitely -- it's a process, and there's not a lot of margin for error as far as the timing. But J.P., like I said, J.P. does a really nice job of keeping those guys ready.

We have our bullpen meeting an hour before every game -- myself, Hef, J.P., our game-planning coach Garneau and our bench coach and our two analytic guys, and we throw out scenarios. And so J.P. has a pretty good idea when guys might get used because we've discussed it before the game.

Now it doesn't always go according to plan, but we have a pretty good idea. He gives those guys a nice heads-up when they might be in the game. They like to know that.

But, like I said, you can't just push a button and the guy's in the game. There's a whole process there, and you have to allow the proper time for that.

Q. To that end, Didier threw more pitches than he has typically. How has he recovered from that outing on Sunday?

WALT WEISS: Yeah, he's recovering well. I think in September, used him in multiple innings a handful of times in September with the thought that in mind that we might have to extend him in the postseason.

I do think that that helped because he didn't go from like a one-inning guy to all of a sudden going three and two-thirds. He put down a -- two innings at a time, I want to say, like, a handful of times in September at the end of the year. I think one of the outings he got up to 40 or 41 pitches.

So I do think that allowed him to stay strong throughout that outing the other night. But he typically recovers very well.

Q. Sale versus Yamamoto tonight, statistically speaking both of these pitchers very similar. How excited are you to watch this match-up play out tonight?

WALT WEISS: It's going to be good TV. Two of the best in the game. And I think that was a match-up this year, right? The 1-0 game. Probably more of the same, I would imagine. But two really good ones.