{"id":24077,"date":"2025-10-26T11:44:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T11:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/24077\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T11:44:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T11:44:12","slug":"will-smiths-world-series-surge-coming-at-perfect-time-for-dodgers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/24077\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Smith’s World Series surge coming at perfect time for Dodgers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TORONTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Will Smith<\/a> had no choice but to ease his way into the postseason.<\/p>\n

After missing the final three weeks of the regular season with a hairline fracture in his right hand, the Dodgers<\/a>\u2019 All-Star catcher sat out of the National League wild-card series, then came off the bench late in the first two games against the Phillies in the division series.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been making up for that lost time ever since.<\/p>\n

Despite spotting his teammates those four starts, Smith\u2019s .314 postseason average is best among Dodgers with at least 10 at-bats. He has 11 hits, the biggest of which came in the seventh inning Saturday when his tie-breaking solo homer sparked the Dodgers to a 5-1 win<\/a> over the Toronto Blue Jays, evening the best-of-seven World Series at a win apiece.<\/p>\n

The series resumes Monday at Dodger Stadium where the Dodgers, now owning the home-field advantage in the playoff, can close things out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re 1-1 right now. So we\u2019re heading back to L.A. trying to win three more,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

His two hits Saturday \u2014 he also had a run-scoring single in the first \u2014 gave him nine hits in his last six games, and he has reached base safely in seven of his eight starts. But the home run, a 404-foot drive he pulled just inside the left-field foul pole, was his first extra-base hit of the playoffs, a sign the hand injury may finally be behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope so,\u201d said Smith, who finished with three RBIs.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s time off with the injury, though unwanted, may be paying dividends for the Dodgers. After playing 101 games behind the plate, Smith was bruised and battered and the break gave him time to heal. The week off between the NLCS and the World Series also helped, manager Dave Roberts<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

\"Will <\/p>\n

Will Smith celebrates after hitting a home run in the seventh inning in Game 2 of the World Series on Saturday.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cThat week off, I think, got him over the hump,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cIt was the first time in a while he\u2019s pulled a ball like that. I think that\u2019s part of the healing process.\u201d<\/p>\n

But if Smith was a little beat up physically, his mental approach and his ability to keep things simple never wavered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying not to do too much,\u201d Smith said. \u201cYou can let the emotions get the best of you [and] try to hit a homer every time, or be the hero every time. It doesn\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m just trying to put together an at-bat, get the right pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what happened in the seventh inning when Smith came up against Toronto starter Kevin Gausman<\/a>, who had set down 17 Dodgers in order following Smith\u2019s single in the first.<\/p>\n

Gausman threw five straight four-seem fastballs, with Smith just missing the last one, fouling it back to run the count full. Gausman tried the same pitch one more time but left it up and in, and Smith didn\u2019t miss this time, putting the Dodgers ahead to stay.<\/p>\n

As he trotted toward first, Smith shouted toward his team\u2019s dugout.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big swing, obviously,\u201d he said. \u201cThe emotion is running high, but I\u2019m also trying to get the guys going; just trying to keep that, that momentum going for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apparently it worked because two batters later Max Muncy ended Gausman\u2019s night with a solo home run. The Dodgers tacked on two more insurance runs in the eighth, the last scoring when Smith grounded into a fielder\u2019s choice.<\/p>\n

But his contributions Saturday went far beyond cheerleading and what he accomplished in the batter\u2019s box. He also helped guide Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> through his second straight complete-game victory of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\u201cThe game-calling, the relationship with the pitchers, has continued to get better,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cHe does his homework. At the end of the day, he\u2019s a guy that just doesn\u2019t panic. He\u2019s really got a flat-line heartbeat, and in the postseason, that\u2019s what you need.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because the postseason is what Smith plays \u2014 and he\u2019s certainly made the most of his opportunities. This is his third World Series and he\u2019s going for this third ring.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fun. It\u2019s pressure baseball,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s who is going to mess up, who is going to make the right pitch, who is going to move the ball when you need to?<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, who is going to out-execute who?\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday it was the Dodgers and Smith who did everything right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Will Smith had no choice but to ease his way into the postseason. After missing the final three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[9252,2139,426,423,18702,9251,48,52,51,47,50,49,18703,8841,4122,428,315,430,3578,1543,18701],"class_list":{"0":"post-24077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-division-series","9":"tag-dodger-stadium","10":"tag-dodgers","11":"tag-game","12":"tag-gausman","13":"tag-home-run","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-la-headlines","16":"tag-la-news","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","19":"tag-los-angeles-news","20":"tag-perfect-time","21":"tag-playoff","22":"tag-postseason","23":"tag-start","24":"tag-time","25":"tag-week","26":"tag-will-smith","27":"tag-win","28":"tag-world-series-surge"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}