by Cary Osborne
The bone bruise that Will Smith dealt with last year wasn’t mentioned until Spring Training this year.
While the All-Star Dodger catcher’s offensive numbers dipped in the second half and into the postseason, he never presented a hint that something might be bothering him.
Not that that’s Smith’s personality to reveal much about himself.
Instead, he wore the bruise in his left ankle bone along with the weight of being the starting catcher for a team with a championship-or-bust mindset.
Smith is a game-changer on offense, and a healthy Smith is showing that early this season.
Smith stood in the batter’s box in the third inning on Tuesday night with the table set for an RBI opportunity. And few have gobbled up those opportunities better than the Dodger backstop this season.
With runners on first and second, Rockies right-hander Ryan Feltner went in at the top of the zone with a sinker and Smith smashed it over the wall for a three-run home run.
It gave the Dodgers a 4–0 lead at the time in an eventual 6–2 win.
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Smith went 2-for-5 with three RBI. Both hits were with runners in scoring position.
Smith is now 10-for-13 this season with runners in scoring position. He is 12-for-24 with men on base.
Smith owns nearly a third of the Dodgers’ hits this season with runners in scoring position (10 of 33).
He also ranks second in the National League in batting average (.367) and on-base percentage (.467) and seventh in OPS (1.026).
Smith has reached base in 15 of the 16 games he has played in.
“The main thing is he’s healthy, he’s got clarity, he’s strong, he feels good,” said manager Dave Roberts. “And so it’s just making sure that he keeps for wanting more, and I say that as far as playing time. When you want more, then that means you’re really feeling good about yourself. Your body’s feeling good, and I think we’re doing a good job (of managing his usage).”
Smith has not played more than three days in a row this season as the Dodgers have expertly found ways to give him days and still maximize his playing time.
Roberts said Smith won’t be in the lineup on Wednesday to continue that trend. But when he has been in the lineup, the Dodgers are 11–4. They’re 12–4 when he plays. They’re 13–6 overall.
“He’s just that a steady presence in the middle of the lineup,” said second baseman Tommy Edman. “He always has good at-bats and always seems to come through in those big moments. He had a huge home run today and just has done a great job all year.”
Edman could say the same.
He went 4-for-5, tying his career high for hits in a game.
A 1-for-10 run over the previous three games brought him down to a .235 average and .803 OPS. He’s now at .274/.883.
Edman, Smith and Freddie Freeman accounted for eight of the Dodgers’ 10 hits on Tuesday — the second game in a row where they reached double digits in hits.
They hadn’t reached 10 in the previous 17 games this season.
A Smith smash and the Dodgers bash the Rockies was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.