{"id":171478,"date":"2025-09-21T09:02:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T09:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/171478\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T09:02:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T09:02:13","slug":"dodgers-take-series-vs-giants-but-when-is-will-smith-returning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/171478\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers take series vs. Giants, but when is Will Smith returning?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Seventeen days later, the Dodgers<\/a> finally know what\u2019s wrong with Will Smith<\/a>\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, ahead of a 7-5 win<\/a> against the San Francisco Giants, manager Dave Roberts<\/a> announced that Smith has a hairline fracture in his right hand and is doubtful to return before the end of the regular season.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers are \u201chopeful\u201d of having Smith available for the postseason, Roberts said, but whether he will be ready for the very start of the playoffs \u2014 which will likely be Sept. 30 \u2014 remains \u201cup in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a week that has seen the Dodgers now win four straight games (making them 10-3 in their last 13) and lower their magic number to clinch the National League West to three, the latest development in Smith\u2019s hand saga has been the only dark cloud that won\u2019t go away.<\/p>\n

A three-time All-Star catcher who led the National League in batting average in the first half of the season before slumping through August, Smith first got hurt when a foul ball hit his dangling throwing hand behind the plate on Sept. 3 in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

After missing the Dodgers\u2019 next five games, he returned to the starting lineup on Sept. 9 against the Colorado Rockies, and doubled in his first at-bat. However, the 30-year-old was a late scratch from the lineup the next day after his hand swelled up, and was placed on the injured list last weekend in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Initially, both an X-ray and an MRI on Smith\u2019s hand came back clean, which is why the Dodgers allowed him to return to action as soon as they did. But his injury lingered and the Dodgers sent him back for another MRI at the end of this past week.<\/p>\n

This time, the scan showed what both Roberts and president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman<\/a> described as a \u201csmall\u201d fracture.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounds like from the doctors that it\u2019s so small and in such a small part of the hand that it didn\u2019t show up initially but did on the subsequent [scan],\u201d Friedman said. \u201cThey seem to say [that] is common. I haven\u2019t seen it, but I also haven\u2019t seen a broken bone in that area very often. It makes sense why it was slow to rebound. I\u2019m glad we have clarity on it. We\u2019re going to do everything we can to strengthen and heal and get it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

To this point, the Dodgers have managed without Smith, who was batting .296 with 17 home runs and 61 RBIs. In the 15 games he has missed since getting hurt, the team is 9-6 and averaging more than five runs per game.<\/p>\n

A big reason why: The emergence of journeyman replacement Ben Rortvedt<\/a>, a minor-league addition at the trade deadline who has come to the majors and produced capably as a fill-in for Smith and backup catcher Dalton Rushing<\/a> (who missed 10 days this month after fouling a ball off his leg).<\/p>\n

After joining the team as a career .186 hitter in four MLB seasons, Rortvedt is batting .270 in 14 games as a Dodger with two doubles and three sacrifice bunts. Dodgers pitchers also had a 2.74 ERA with him behind the plate entering Saturday.<\/p>\n

That latter number jumped early on Saturday, when Tyler Glasnow<\/a> labored through a four-run, 43-pitch first inning that featured four hits and three walks. However, the battery settled down, with Glasnow completing the fifth inning without further damage, and allowing a surging offense to take control.<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers <\/p>\n

Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow delivers in the first inning against the Giants on Saturday.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of those games where I didn\u2019t really have anything,\u201d Glasnow said. \u201cI just went back in and was like, just try to compete as hard as I can. It ended up kind of getting back online.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers (88-67) got a two-run home run from Max Muncy<\/a> in the bottom of the first. They tied the game in the fourth when Michael Conforto<\/a> hit a solo home run (one of his three hits on the night) and Freddie Freeman added an RBI single. <\/p>\n

Slumping utilityman Tommy Edman<\/a> snapped a five-for-26 rut since returning from an ankle injury in the fifth, clanging a go-ahead home run off the left-field foul pole. <\/p>\n

Shohei Ohtani<\/a> helped extend the lead in the sixth, belting his 53rd home run of the season (and fourth in the last five games) to tie Kyle Schwarber for the NL lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur guys are playing playoff-caliber baseball,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cYou can just see the intensity each pitch, each play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Muncy runs the bases after hitting a two-run homer off San Francisco Giants pitcher Kai-Wei Teng in the first inning Saturday.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers <\/p>\n

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, right, celebrates with Max Muncy after scoring in the fourth inning against the Giants on Saturday.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Even with Rushing healthy again, Roberts said Rortvedt likely will get the \u201clion\u2019s share\u201d of playing time in Smith\u2019s absence \u2014 thanks largely to the way Rortvedt has handled the staff, and how Rushing has struggled with both his defense and his bat in a difficult rookie season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way he\u2019s helped lead our pitching staff has been awesome,\u201d Friedman said of Rortvedt, who was acquired from Tampa Bay in a three-team trade a day before the deadline. \u201cHe really has that servant leadership mentality behind the plate, which has really ingratiated himself with a lot of our pitchers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, to be at top form, the Dodgers will need Smith in the middle of the batting order.<\/p>\n

Friedman said Smith will keep getting treatment on his hand until \u201che gets to a point where he doesn\u2019t have symptoms.\u201d Then, he will go for follow-up X-rays to determine when he will be able to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re optimistic that it\u2019s going to heal quickly, but we\u2019re at the mercy of how quickly that happens,\u201d Friedman said. \u201cWe don\u2019t really know, but we\u2019re optimistic it\u2019ll be pretty fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graterol not expected back<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not much of a surprise at this point, but the Dodgers are not expecting reliever Brusdar Graterol to return this season.<\/p>\n

Graterol has not pitched this year after an offseason shoulder surgery, and his recovery \u201chasn\u2019t gone as smoothly as he would like, as we would like,\u201d Friedman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been hard to kind of ramp up the volume that he would need to get back. My expectation is he will not be back this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seventeen days later, the Dodgers finally know what\u2019s wrong with Will Smith\u2019s hand. On Saturday, ahead of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[3959,4279,29645,5460,6295,18130,14763,102683,36408,95085,13921,99,5623,1599,2384,4277],"class_list":["post-171478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-dodger","tag-dodgers","tag-friedman","tag-game","tag-next-day","tag-plate","tag-playoff","tag-right-hand","tag-roberts","tag-sept","tag-smith","tag-sports","tag-starting-lineup","tag-team","tag-time","tag-will-smith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}