With a story all his own, Ray Kerr takes us on an unforgettable ride

In 2008, 14-year-old Ray Kerr was in foster care in Reno, Nevada.

In 2015, his baseball career appeared over after he returned home to Reno following two years of community college ball in California. He found work at, among other places, a 7-Eleven and a movie theater.

“Cleaned up a lot of popcorn,” he said.

In 2017, he played another season of junior college baseball, pitched in an Alaskan summer league and, just as he was about to head for Cumberland University in Tennessee, he signed a minor league contract.

In 2022, he made his major league debut with San Diego.

In 2024, he both reached the majors again (this time with the Braves) and tore the UCL in his left (pitching) elbow — putting his career in jeopardy.

In March of this year, he suffered a setback in his recovery from Tommy John surgery, leaving in doubt if he would ever make it back to the majors.

In August, he remained in the minor leagues, persevering and hoping that he could recover his form.

And Thursday night, 32-year-old Ray Kerr made his playoff debut and gave his team 3⅓ scoreless innings as its starter, playing an instrumental role as the Braves locked down a winner-take-all National League Wild Card Series game.

“It was a journey,” Kerr said after the game. “I’ve dreamed about stuff like this.”

With their electric 6-2 win, the Braves are bound for Los Angeles to face the two-time defending world champion Dodgers in the NL Division Series, a best-of-five matchup that begins Saturday at Dodger Stadium.

In a season defined by overcoming obstacles and surpassing expectations despite myriad challenges, does anyone represent this team’s spirit better than Kerr?

“Hopefully, Ray Kerr became a bit of a household name (Thursday),” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “He deserves it. He’s got an amazing story — perseverance.”

It’s a story that put Thursday night’s stakes — starting Game 3 in front of a sold-out Truist and a national television audience, and trying to end his club’s haunting streak of six consecutive losses in winner-take-all postseason games — into a different frame than most would see it.

“On the mound, if I go out there and it’s bases loaded and I kind of have to come into a situation, I’ve been through worse than this,” Kerr told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week. “This is … fun to me.”

On the rise

Kerr was 13 when he and his brother Richard were placed into foster care in Reno. His mother had not been part of his life since he was around 2, Kerr said. Foster care became necessary when Kerr’s father, also named Richard, was incarcerated.

A woman named Lisa McCarthy entered the boys’ lives, serving as their foster mother.

“She’s still in my life to this day,” Kerr said. “She’s like my mom now.”

Indeed, on his phone, her contact information is listed under “Mom.” In Reno, McCarthy takes care of Kerr and his wife Jennifer’s daughter, Aaniyah Rose Kerr. (Aaniyah is “5 and some change,” Kerr said.)

After graduating from high school, Kerr continued his career at Mendocino College in California. It didn’t flourish and he returned to Reno and began working, including at a 7-Eleven where he stocked shelves. He remembered making something like $13 an hour.

“I thought that was a lot,” he said.

He continued to pitch for the Reno Astros, a team of players aspiring to play professionally. In 2017, he returned to college baseball at another community college, Lassen College in Susanville, California, and then the Alaskan summer league.

“I kind of quit baseball a little bit because I never thought I was really good enough to play; never played at a D-I school,” Kerr said. “What opened my eyes was when I played in Alaska and I figured out, ‘Oh, these guys, some of them are D-2, D-3. I was like, ‘Oh. Pretty cool. I’m actually kind of decent.’”

The next step was Cumberland, which he figured would be the end of his career.

“I didn’t have a ceiling,” he said, which is to say, he didn’t hold high aspirations. “I didn’t think that I was ever going to be in the big leagues.”

But days before he was to head to Cumberland, he signed with the Seattle Mariners. He reached the majors in 2022 with the San Diego Padres.

He was traded to the Braves in December 2023. He was in their minor league chain until reaching the majors in May 2024, making 10 appearances with a 5.64 ERA before his UCL tear necessitated Tommy John surgery.

Then-manager Brian Snitker predicted that “he’ll be back stronger than ever.”

‘A winner’s mentality’

And then another climb began. Rehab, therapy and slowly returning to pitching. He didn’t pitch anywhere during the 2025 season and then began the ’26 season on the 60-day injured list, one of a number of setbacks he encountered.

“I knew I was going to come back and help the team win somehow because I’ve got a winner’s mentality and a fighter’s mentality,” Kerr said.

He only began pitching in rehab assignments in July, climbing from the Braves’ rookie league team in North Port, Florida, to Triple-A Gwinnett in less than a month.

His confidence in his ability to throw with maximum effort without damaging his arm grew.

He returned to the majors Aug. 17. He has been extraordinary since, finishing the regular season with a 1.47 ERA in 18⅓ innings.

The steps of the journey have not been lost on him.

“I still walk out there, I admire every field,” Kerr said last week. “I remember how many people (have) walked on a field since the big leagues have been a thing, and I’m here. Life’s crazy.”

Kerr’s regular-season performance gave Weiss the confidence to not only have him start in the Braves’ most important game of the season, but to have him do so in an unconventional setting — a reliever starting a game. Weiss wanted a lefty for left-handed Phillies sluggers Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper in the top of the first.

He gave up a single to Schwarber but struck out Harper, to the delight of the Truist crowd. He launched his deliveries from his thin 6-foot-3 frame, his four-pitch mix keeping the Phillies off balance.

“We really didn’t get anything going on him,” Phillies manager Don Mattingly said.

Kerr showed little emotion on the mound, even after his two strikeouts. When he got out of the first — thanks to second baseman Ozzie Albies fielding a smashed ground ball and throwing to first — Kerr clapped lightly with his left hand and mitt, as if in a golf tournament gallery.

“I would have to say that’s my Kerr mode being activated,” he said. “That’s when I just lock in and whatever happens, happens.”

Weiss saw enough to stay with him until Schwarber and Harper came up again, in the top of the fourth. He walked Schwarber but induced a fielder’s choice force out from Harper. Weiss came to the mound for Kerr, who exited to a standing ovation.

In the short history of Truist Park, there surely has not been a moment quite like that, a most unlikely starter coming through for the Braves in a most pressure-packed environment.