Austin Riley probably won’t be the National League MVP, even though his case is as strong as anyone’s. But with his postseason outburst, lack of national recognition should no longer be a concern moving forward.
Riley’s star is shining bright on the big stage. The Braves’ third baseman has been dominant in the postseason, collecting a hit in each of the Braves’ five games. His finest performance came Saturday, when he homered and had the walk-off hit in the Braves’ 3-2 win over the Dodgers in Game 1 of the NL Championship Series.
“You dream of that as a little kid,” Riley said. “It was huge. That was my first one ever. I’ve come up in quite a few situations earlier in the season and wasn’t able to get it done, but to get it done tonight was awesome.”
It was Riley’s second multi-hit effort this October. He’s hitting .368 (7-for-19) with two home runs and three RBIs in the Braves’ first five playoff games. They’re 4-1 in the postseason entering Game 2 Sunday.
The reinvented Riley of the regular season has carried over into October. And that makes him one of the scariest hitters remaining in the tournament.
“He has confidence in himself,” manager Brian Snitker said. “You see what he’s doing, the at-bats in the (NL Division Series), here (in the NLCS). I think that kid’s definitely taken the next step forward.”
Second baseman Ozzie Albies set the stage for Riley on Saturday. He found grass in the outfield on a one-out single off Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen. Riley then smacked the second pitch he saw — an 86.8 mph slider — down the left-field line to score Albies, who’d stolen second base.
It wasn’t that long ago that Riley was a maddeningly inconsistent hitter. He was known for being streaky, a player who would pile up strikeouts in between his mammoth shots. Despite being a young player with room to grow, few could’ve seen this coming.
Riley re-wrote the story on his career this season, hitting .303 with a .367 on-base percentage in the regular season. Now the national audience is seeing why he’s so valuable for the Braves.
“He deserves it, especially just because he came up and had such a big splash and then kind of had to learn his way through the big leagues,” shortstop Dansby Swanson said. “And then I feel like in this day and age, like as soon as we come up, we all have a comp, right? We have a comp to someone of what our ceiling could be and what they were in their prime. And when you’re not that immediately, it’s kind of like, okay, well, this person’s not any good.
“I feel like that happens so often in any sport nowadays, right? You look at quarterbacks in the NFL, if they’re not good after one year, get them out, right? And it’s just really cool to see his growth as a player, to see his experience over the last two or three years really pay off to this point, and obviously to be doing it on a stage like this is special for somebody that’s still so young that I don’t think people truly realize how young he is still. So I love him to death. He’s one of my best friends and I’m just happy that he’s playing the way he is.”
Riley, 24, has matured into a patient, more selective hitter. Along with his continuous defensive growth, Riley has become a complete player. He was the Braves’ most valuable producer during the 2021 season. He hit 33 homers with 107 RBIs and 91 runs scored.
Credit: Hyosub Shin
Credit: Hyosub Shin
The slugger was just 4-for-28 (.143) in the NLCS against the Dodgers last year. He had half that hit total in just Game 1 this time around, and the Dodgers have noted his development.
“(Riley’s improvement is) really noticeable,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “You just see the confidence. Just at the plate he’s handling velocity, spin. He can beat the shift, so he can control the barrel. He’s just a really good hitter. Defensively, he’s gotten a couple grades better, too.”
The Braves are three wins from a World Series berth. If they get there, Riley will be a key reason why. And then he’d have the chance to capture eyeballs on the grandest stage of them all.
