Originally published by DodgerBlue.com
On August 3, Fernando Tatis Jr. was barreling toward home plate where Will Smith was waiting for him with the ball. Tatis Jr. tried to avoid the tag but instead ran over Smith in an awkward fashion.
At the time, no one was really thinking too much of the incident after the game, and Smith admitted he put himself in a bad position. Yet 12 days later as Smith was batting just .188 on the season, he was placed on the 10-day injured list with a sore neck. At the time of being put on the shelf, he told the media, “There was some sharp pain in there that was kind of concerning [at the time], but I was playing through it.”
In his first game back on August 23, Smith hit a home run and scored two runs to help the Dodgers beat Colorado 11-3. He hasn’t stopped being productive since then and has become one of the best hitters in the Los Angeles lineup despite the fact he’ll likely not reach enough plate appearances to qualify to be on the MLB leaderboards. Still, if he did qualify, he would have the best OPS+ on the Dodgers at 171 and have the ninth-best mark in the majors behind such sluggers as Mike Trout (176) and Juan Soto (league-leading 206).
That form has continued into September as he has become more of the everyday catcher for the Dodgers. In 12 starts through the first 20 days of the month, Smith is batting .395 with a slugging percentage of .651 and an on-base percentage of .480. He has a pair of home runs and nine RBIs to go along with his five doubles.
Smith also has drawn six walks, one of which was intentional, and struck out just six times, a credit to the work he had been putting in behind the scenes. His chase rate is down to 13.2 percent from the 22.6 percent it was last season as a rookie, meaning he’s not swinging at as many bad pitches. That has led to improvements in his walk rate – up to 17.5 percent from 9.2 – and a dramatic reduction in his strikeout rate from 26.5 percent to 14.6 percent.
Dodgers fans based in California might not be able to bet on their favorite team, but there are still plenty of people who are putting money down on the Dodgers at NJ’s legal online sportsbooks. You can even make wagers on how Smith is going to perform as the Dodgers head into the postseason as a World Series favorite.
