decades with the Dodgers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cHe didn\u2019t play a ton his first two years, but had a real good junior year (with a) really simple, easy swing that put the ball in play a lot. There wasn\u2019t a lot of (swing and) miss and strikeouts to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd what ended up happening was, we took him, he got stronger, they added a little more to his swing and he got some more power. The ingredients were there, and then player development got there to finish him off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith hit only two homers in his first two seasons with Louisville, then seven in his draft year. With the Dodgers, Lamb said, he has learned to use his legs to generate more power, which he showed in Game 2 by blasting an inside pitch from Kevin Gausman \u2013 who had retired 17 hitters in a row \u2013 into the second deck.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the first time in a while he\u2019s pulled a ball like that, so I think that\u2019s part of the healing process,\u201d manager Dave Roberts said, referring to Smith\u2019s recent injury, a hairline fracture in his throwing hand that cost him almost a month before the division series.<\/p>\n
\u201cGausman was throwing the baseball really well. We were in between, I thought, offensively with the fastball. When Will got into that 3-2 count \u2013 (he) just missed a 3-1 heater \u2013 and then they went to the well again and (he) hit a homer, there was just complete elation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith has hit safely in eight of his 10 postseason games, with a .314 average and .400 on-base percentage. The homer was his first in 55 days, but he bats cleanup for a reason.<\/p>\n
Since 2019, Smith\u2019s rookie season, his .834 OPS is first among the 13 players who have caught 500 games. His .358 OBP is the best by 30 points, and his .476 slugging percentage ranks third, one point behind the Kansas City Royals\u2019 Salvador Perez and eight behind the Seattle Mariners\u2019 Cal Raleigh.<\/p>\n
Smith, 30, is not exactly anonymous. Last season he started a 10-year, $140 million contract that runs through 2033. He has made the last three National League All-Star teams and caught Buehler\u2019s final curveball to clinch the World Series title at Yankee Stadium last October.<\/p>\n
But the star power in the Dodgers\u2019 lineup, with its MVP trio of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, naturally obscures a guy such as Smith \u2013 who, let\u2019s say, may not have a future in the broadcast booth.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t really talk that much,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cHe\u2019s more focused on the pitcher and making sure they\u2019re getting through the games. (So) for him to do things offensively, and what he\u2019s done \u2013 he\u2019s an All-Star back-to-back years, but I think he cares more about pitchers, and that\u2019s what makes him so special.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Smith\u2019s first World Series, in 2020, he mostly started at designated hitter. Austin Barnes was the Dodgers\u2019 regular catcher then, including for the clincher against the Tampa Bay Rays. Since then, Smith has played 45 postseason games and caught in all of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been doing it now for, gosh, five or six years in the postseason, and does a good job of knowing scouting reports and does a lot of homework,\u201d Clayton Kershaw said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he also knows when to flip the script and not keep doing the same things over and over again. He\u2019s got a great feel. I think that\u2019s the biggest thing \u2013 knowing when to stick to strengths, knowing when to go off script, and he does a good job guiding the whole staff with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith spoke in the interview room before Game 2, expressing confidence in the staff despite Toronto\u2019s 11-4 thrashing in the opener.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey fight in the box, they put together good at-bats, they move the ball,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s just finding ways to get \u2019em out, keep \u2019em off balance. When they do hit the ball, finding pop-ups or ground balls right at guys. So it\u2019s a challenge, it\u2019s a good team, but I still trust our pitching more than their hitters. Hoping to even the series tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
After doing that with his game-calling and his bat, Smith said in the clubhouse that hitting well at the game\u2019s most demanding position is simply what he\u2019s paid to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard \u2013 it\u2019s my job though,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I\u2019m just being prepared for the game, putting the work in. That\u2019s what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n
He does it better than almost anyone else at his position, even if other catchers and teammates are much more famous. Just like in the 2016 draft, the Dodgers know what they have in Smith, and that is enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything\u2019s great \u2013 you name it, he does it,\u201d Betts said. \u201cWhatever stat you want to pull up, he does it very well. I don\u2019t know how he flies under the radar, but if he does, he should come join all the guys at the top.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2013 For every team but the Los Angeles Dodgers, the first round of the 2016 draft was…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":333649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2502,1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-333648","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115440078387755323","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}