SAN DIEGO — The worst start of Austin Riley’s career has kept him up at night.The Atlanta Braves third baseman has found himself replaying at-bats in his head, losing sleep as he searched for answers to a slump that has refused to let him go.“I want it more than anybody, to figure it out,” Riley said this week at Petco Park. “I want to perform for my teammates and the fans.”The Braves as a whole are slumping this month with an 8-11 record, but Riley’s struggles have been present all season. Even with recent signs of life — after a three-hit effort against the San Francisco Giants last week, Riley went 5-for-his-next-14 — the two-time All-Star’s stat line sits in foreign territory. He enters the weekend series in San Francisco, slashing .214/.296/.347⁠ with 36 RBIs.From 2021 to 2023, Riley looked like the Braves’ next star, earning a franchise-record $212 million in mid-2022. He averaged 34 home runs a year, batted .286 and ranked ninth in fWAR (16.1) behind the likes of Aaron Judge, Freddie Freeman, Juan Soto and fellow third baseman José Ramírez.The return on the Braves’ investment has paled of late. His power declined in 2024, and the trend continued into 2025. Riley had season-ending injuries in each year.