Walt Weiss credits Tuesday night’s win to a trait he stole from Bobby Cox

With the Atlanta Braves honoring Bobby Cox as they returned to Truist Park on Tuesday, the night ended with a fitting victory, highlighted by home runs during a four-run fifth inning from the two players that had gotten off to the slowest starts — Austin Riley and Mike Yastrzemski.

After the game, Walt Weiss was asked about the two finally breaking through, and he credited the legendary former Braves manager for teaching him patience.

“I like to encourage guys,” Weiss said. “Obviously, that was one of Bobby’s greatest strengths, and virtually everyone you talk to that played for him says that. Maybe I took that from Bobby, and I’m good with that if that’s the case. The game is really hard. I think it’s important to encourage guys when they’re struggling because you feel like when you’re not playing well everybody hates you in this league. You don’t want your players feeling that. I think it’s important to encourage them through the tough times.”

It’s a statement everybody has heard a million times, but fans are often quick to forget: baseball is a game built on failure. Every player in the league — Hall of Famers included — goes through rough stretches. Hell, Shohei Ohtani recently had a 10-game stretch where he hit .105 with one extra-base hit. Nobody in Los Angeles was talking about benching him.

Riley had an April he’d probably love to erase, struggling to stay above the Mendoza Line, but he’s beginning to turn things around in May, hitting .316 with three homers and a .920 OPS over his last 10 games.

Tuesday also marked the first home run of the season for Yastrzemski. It’s been a difficult start to his first season with a tomahawk across his chest; however, this is still a player that has produced between 2-3 WAR in every season since his rookie campaign in 2019.

That’s a remarkable level of consistency, and as another legendary Braves manager, Brian Snitker, used to say, it’s usually best to bet on the back of a player’s baseball card.

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(Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire)