Late Saturday night, Austin Riley stepped into the batter's box in the ninth inning of the Braves' playoff game, and the whole place was going nuts. There were screams of anticipation and shouts of encouragement -- from the Mississippi living room of Riley's high school coach, Mark Monaghan. As Riley, stoic as ever, began his at-bat in Truist Park about 400 miles away, Monaghan watched from his couch alongside his wife, two daughters and two cats and family dog, a boxer named Manny Ramirez Pacquiao, whose ears perked at the commotion.
Monaghan has been watching Riley hit since the summer after his freshman year in high school, and now, in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, he could see Riley extinguishing his emotion, slowing everything down. The teenager who had been so adept at making adjustments, at exploring the flaws in his own work and affecting corrections, has evolved into a young adult at the very top of his profession. The new draftee who didn't want his DeSoto Central High School jersey number retired until after he had done something worthy is still making adjustments, still humble, still hungry to learn.
In mid-September, when the Braves played host to the Marlins, Monaghan and his family drove to Atlanta to see Riley play. Before a game, Riley chatted with his former coach, and Monaghan heard kids screaming nearby for Riley's attention, for his autograph. During Riley's at-bats, Monaghan heard MVP chants. It wasn't an entirely crazy notion -- the Braves would not be in the National League Championship Series without Riley, who has propelled the Atlanta offense in the aftermath of Ronald Acuna's season-ending knee injury July 11. After the All-Star break, Riley hit .333, with a .599 slugging percentage, 19 homers and 65 RBIs in 72 games -- and since the trade deadline, Atlanta had MLB's best winning percentage, .667 (42-20).
"I think the kid's taken the next step forward," said Braves manager Brian Snitker during the NLCS. "I think he has confidence in himself."
The scene at Truist Park was a long way from the first time that Monaghan met Riley, in a DeSoto Central team meeting as Riley began his sophomore year in high school. But even then, Riley made an impression: What has always stuck with Monaghan was his eye contact. Adolescents can be shy, or easily bored, or disconnected from a conversation. But as Monaghan talked, Riley's eye contact was unwavering, locked in, Monaghan said, like he was listening to scripture.
He was always stronger than anybody else. The winter after Riley starred in his senior year at DeSoto Central and was drafted in the first round by the Braves, he returned to school before spring training for some intrasquad work, and on an early February day, a sturdy wind blew in from the north. Monaghan remembers telling his assistant, as they prepped the infield dirt, that nobody could possibly hit a home run that day. When Riley blistered a home run to right-center field, into a parking lot, the assistant turned to Monaghan and said, "Well, you've lost that bet."
Riley also had an unusual understanding of when he was doing well, Monaghan felt, of when he was overswinging and needed to get back to simple checkpoints. Riley, a right-handed hitter, felt he was at his best when he consistently drove the ball to right-center field -- reflecting milliseconds of patience that meant he had more time to handle a fastball, to identify breaking pitches. Monaghan also noticed that whenever he dealt with a particular competitive challenge, there would be a period of adjustment, some struggles, and he would then find his way. Years later, Braves officials noticed the same thing as he climbed from level to level in pro ball: Riley would initially get his ass kicked. And then he would adjust.
Riley made his big-league debut in 2019 and slammed some home runs, but in his last 45 games of that season, he batted .163 with 60 strikeouts in 147 plate appearances -- and continued to struggle in 2020, batting just .239 with eight homers in 51 games of a season shortened by coronavirus. Opposing pitchers beat him repeatedly with fastballs in or sliders away.
Monaghan had raised the idea of retiring Riley's No. 13 after he was drafted by the Braves, but Riley talked him out of that. "Just being who he is, I guess," Monaghan recalled. "He wanted to make it to the big leagues first, and even when he did, he was still kind of hesitant. He wanted to be established."
Riley finally acceded to a jersey retirement this year, and, at the ceremony in February -- with his hands shoved into his pockets, seemingly a little embarrassed by the attention -- he mentioned to Monaghan that he was still making adjustments: He had been tinkering with his swing, trying to make it more efficient, more effective at getting to fastballs.
In March, he had talked to Chipper Jones about the mental sinkhole that can develop within a hitter's mind through the ball-strike count -- the sensation of being bullied toward the ledge of an at-bat by the pitcher, the hitter frantically trying to find traction.
To Monaghan's eyes, Riley's swing looks more freed up now, "to handle [fastballs] hard in, and so he can be more disciplined when they throw him sliders out of the zone. He just freed himself up. He doesn't seem stiff [in his swing], and he's been able to handle the most elite arms in the game. When they leave the ball up, he doesn't miss it. He's put in a ton of work."
It's a sentiment that Riley echoed after Saturday's game, saying he felt "a lot better" about his offensive output this year. "I continue to build that confidence of trusting my stuff and knowing that it plays at this level. Just the continuing of the work and, like I said, putting it in every day, has been huge."
Earlier in Game 2, the Dodgers' Tony Gonsolin had tried to beat Riley with a fastball on the inside corner, and Riley slammed a line drive deep into the left field stands. "Trying to be short [in the swing] to the ball," Riley explained to reporters afterward. "I felt here lately that I've been a little long, fouling off pitches that I could do some damage with."
Throughout the game, Monaghan and daughters Maggie and Milla, ages 14 and 10, had tracked the sequence of Atlanta hitters, and they knew that Riley might bat in the ninth inning. "We thought it might come to Austin for some dramatics," Monaghan said.
With one out, Ozzie Albies was at second base, the potential winning run, and Blake Treinen spun a slider -- and Riley yanked it into the left-field corner. Back in Mississippi, the Monaghans celebrated happily, loudly, while Manny Ramirez Pacquiao looked around from his crate and wondered what the hell had happened.
"That was my first [walk-off] ever," Riley said after the game. "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. ... I mean, you dream of that as a little kid."
Monaghan did not text Riley after the game; he is wary of overwhelming the 24-year-old being pulled at from unexpected directions. So Monaghan only sends texts of congratulations and encouragement at major crossroads -- like when Atlanta advanced to play the Dodgers. He is hopeful there will be another text soon enough, on the eve of what would be the Braves' first trip to the World Series since 1999.