SAN FRANCISCO — If the Dodgers had put Will Smith on the injured list the day after he suffered a bone bruise in his right hand, he would be eligible to come off the list on Sunday.
They didn’t, choosing to hope for a quicker recovery than 10 days. Smith did return to play one game on Tuesday. But the discomfort and swelling returned. He was scratched from the starting lineup 15 minutes before game time on Wednesday and hasn’t played since.
The Dodgers put Smith on the IL on Saturday, retroactive to that game Tuesday. Chuckie Robinson was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City to back up Ben Rortvedt, who has started six of the past seven games since Dalton Rushing went on the IL with a bone bruise in his lower leg.
“There’s just not enough improvement,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the move Saturday. “The hope is, when he’s eligible to come off, we can activate him. But just where he’s at, it makes the most sense.”
Roberts acknowledged that playing on Tuesday caused the hand injury to flare up. If they had known Smith would be able to play just once in the week after suffering the injury, the Dodgers would have made the IL move sooner.
“This was the information we had at that moment in time,” he said. “The X-rays were all negative. People have contusions all the time, but this one right now is kind of lingering a little bit longer than we all hoped.
“I think in hindsight we would have definitely done it (the IL move). But that’s not what we had at that point in time. The information we had at the time was, he could play a game, which he did. That’s what we knew. And then when he comes up sore the next day and the following days, then we made a decision.”
Roberts praised Rortvedt for stepping in and handling the pitching staff. Rushing played his third game on a minor-league rehabilitation assignment with OKC on Saturday and caught all nine innings for the second time. He is expected back when he is eligible to come off the IL on Tuesday.
Smith had shown signs of breaking out of a second-half slump, going 5 for his last 11, including a three-hit game and a walk-off pinch-hit home run. But a bone bruise in his hand is the type of injury that can linger and affect his swing going forward.
“We’re hopeful that one week will settle it down,” Roberts said. “I think the thing is, we remain hopeful because all the scans are negative. So we feel good that just some time off, he’ll be back to feeling back to normal.
“We just didn’t want him to have to go through this, being sore, ailing to compromise the throwing mechanics, the hitting mechanics, all that stuff.”
Smith will be eligible to return next Saturday during the Dodgers’ series against the San Francisco Giants in Los Angeles.
MUNCY STATUS
Third baseman Max Muncy left Friday night’s game after being hit in the right hand by a pitch during the eighth inning. He was back in the lineup on Saturday after going through all his usual pre-game work.
Muncy said the pitch caught him just below the hand guard he wears, but not on the wrist.
“For me, it’s just gonna be as the game goes on, just as it potentially gets tight, if it gets stiff, being mindful of is there a potential defensive replacement situation,” Roberts said.
UP NEXT
Dodgers (RHP Tyler Glasnow, 2-3, 3.21 ERA) at Giants (LHP Robbie Ray, 11-6, 3.32 ERA), Sunday, 1:05 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM