In a battle of Will Smiths, the Dodgers come out victorious to stay alive
The Dodger group text chain lit up. Staring at a 3–1 deficit in the National League Championship Series, a few players spoke up after a Game 4 defeat. Justin Turner sensed his teammates were still fired up. They’d faced elimination before and felt determined not to let Friday’s must-win Game 5 be the end of an eighth straight trip to the postseason.
“One thing we talked about is this is an opportunity to do something special,” Turner said.
That would require three straight wins from the Dodgers. With the help of a go-ahead, 415-foot blast in the sixth inning from catcher Will Smith against the Braves reliever bearing the same name, the Dodgers’ hope for a Hollywood ending remains intact.
“Will doing what he did, it was awesome,” said Corey Seager, who homered twice in the comeback 7–3 win. “That’s the big moment. You need the big hit. He got it.”
It’s far from the first time the catcher delivered in a crucial spot. A year ago, two of Smith’s first three career home runs were walk-offs. He’d go on to hit a Dodger record 10 home runs in his first 25 games as a rookie. Ever since he was a child, playing for his varsity team by the seventh grade, Smith has tended to rise to the challenges presented on a baseball field.
But it didn’t always end well.
A year ago, in a game the Dodgers needed to survive to get out of the National League Division Series against the Nationals, Smith went hitless despite nearly walking the Dodgers off with a 368-foot drive to right field that died at the warning track. This postseason, Smith was coming off a five-hit game to end the NLDS but ran into some bad luck against the Braves despite more hard contact.
He entered Friday with two hits in the series. A night prior, his bases-loaded pinch-hit line drive was caught by Ozzie Albies to conclude the seventh inning, ending the Dodgers’ best chance to strike in a loss.
“We’re producers, not directors,” said Mookie Betts. “He produces good swings. You can’t really control it after that.”
The movie analogy was appropriate given Game 5’s game-changing matchup.
In a battle of Will Smiths, the Dodger catcher found himself in an inauspicious position against the Braves pitcher with two on and two outs in the sixth inning with his team trailing 2–1. The momentum the Dodgers gained after a spectacular Betts catch in right field and a subsequent Seager home run threatened to fizzle when the Dodgers’ Smith went down 0–2.
“You’ve always got to stay positive as a hitter,” the catcher said. “The second you feel bad about yourself or give in or give up, you’re done. You can’t ever have that mindset. You just keep going.”
He battled. An 0–2 count went to 3–2. He’d already seen three fastballs when the fourth one caught more of the plate. Smith connected. He knew what he’d done right away, slowly stepping out of the batter’s box toward the first-base line admiring his work.
The typically mild-mannered catcher grabbed the bat by the handle and flung it toward the Dodger dugout, where his teammates had emerged over the railing to celebrate the three-run shot.
“I was pumped up,” Smith said. “Got the team going. You look over at the dugout, they’re all fired up. That energy bounces off of each other. I was letting the emotions go and enjoying the moment.”
The Dodger catcher let out a jubilant scream as he smacked the hand of first-base coach George Lombard rounding the bases. He hopped around third base and two-hand shoved Max Muncy as he crossed home plate.
It was the most emotion Betts said he’d seen from Smith, and he was happy to see him expressing it. So was Smith’s manager.
“You just don’t see it from certain guys, that’s just not who they are,” said Dave Roberts. “But that intensity, that fire, that passion is in there. For me to kind of see it come out, it’s a lot of fun.”