There was a time not long ago when Austin Riley’s name came up in numerous trade proposals the Braves received from other teams, and some in the organization thought general manager Alex Anthopoulos should listen and be willing to consider if the right offer came along.
The thinking was that while Riley certainly had what Chipper Jones years ago described as “light-tower power” back when the kid was a raw prospect, years later there was still some question about whether Riley would ever cut down his huge strikeout totals, figure out what to do with sliders, and also whether the strapping, 240-pound Mississippi native was agile enough to become a plus defender at third base.
Well, it’s a good thing enough people in the organization wanted to keep him, including Anthopoulos.
Riley had a star-making, career-defining season, and now he’s adding to it in the playoffs, stealing the show Saturday in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series against the powerful Los Angeles Dodgers with a game-tying homer in the fourth inning and a walk-off single in the ninth to lift the Braves to a thrilling 3-2 win before a charged-up, sellout crowd at Truist Park.
“It was huge — that was my first one ever,” Riley said after getting his first walk-off hit, and doing it against one of baseball’s nastiest relievers, Blake Treinen, in the first NLCS game played in Georgia in 20 years.
