Dodgers Interview: Smith delivers off Gausman again

TORONTO — Will Smith broke the seal on Game 6 with a ringing double and then steered the rest of the night like a catcher who has been here before. He spoke quietly about the swing that got the Dodgers on the board and the poise that carried them to the finish line.

He started with the last heartbeat of the night. “Kiké made a really good play, really good read on that ball,” Smith said of Enrique Hernández charging Giménez’s liner and firing to second for the game-ending double play. “I think he was playing a little shallow because of the situation. Barger probably got a little giddy and wanted to score a tying run, but Miggy made one heck of a pick. That was awesome.”

The first big swing belonged to Smith, too, right after Toronto put Shohei Ohtani on intentionally. He saw it coming and planned for it. “As soon as Tommy hit the double, you’re kind of playing through it,” he said. “I knew if Miggy got out, they were probably going to walk him, so I was prepared. I was able to hit a splitter, get the barrel on it, and drive him in.”

From there, Smith shifted to the mound, where Yoshinobu Yamamoto turned in six steady innings. “I thought he was really good,” Smith said. “Gave up the one run, gave us six strong innings. That’s what we needed today. It wasn’t his nine-inning complete game like he’s done recently, but we needed a good start out of him.” The Blue Jays pushed the pitch count, and Smith felt it. “They did a better job getting his pitch count up,” he said. “I’ve definitely seen him better, especially in the postseason, but you just keep attacking, figure out what he can strike, where the splitter is to get some swing and miss, just playing the game with what he’s got.”

The eighth and ninth demanded juggling and nerve. “The eighth was big, putting up a zero there,” Smith said. “Unfortunately we hit Kirk with an 0–2 splitter and then a base hit, but Tyler was able to come behind him and pick him up.” He was ready for the weird, too. When the ball kicked under the fence in the ninth, awareness mattered. And when Giménez flared one to left, Smith tracked the angle. “I know where Kiké was playing,” he said. “It comes off the bat and you don’t know if it’s going to bleed in there or not, but once I saw him have a good jump, he seemed like he was going to catch it. I wasn’t expecting that double play until you see where the runner is. That was a really good play.”

Tomorrow will be a true all-hands game, and that means a catcher’s night never ends. Smith kept it simple. “You just go one pitch at a time,” he said of preparing for a bullpen parade. “Have those conversations with the pitching coaches about what we need to do, who’s coming up. One inning, one pitch at a time.” He knows what rides on it and smiled anyway. “I’m excited,” he said. “It’s going to be fun. We work all year long to be in this situation to win a ballgame.”

He was asked to compare this Yamamoto to the complete-game maestro from Game 2. The answer landed in the same calm tone he used behind the plate. “Game 2 was masterful by him,” Smith said. “I thought he was really good tonight as well. They did a better job today kind of getting his pitch count up, getting him out of the ballgame. He gave us six strong and turned it over to the bullpen.”

The blueprint of the third inning told the story of how he thinks through at-bats. The moment Tommy Edman split the gap, Smith started running scenarios. “You’re kind of playing through it,” he said again, describing how Ohtani’s free pass shaped the next pitch. “Prepared for it.” He got the splitter he wanted. He didn’t miss.

Smith rounded it out by tipping his cap to the defense behind him. “Miggy made some huge plays,” he said. “That pick to end it, the turns in the middle, that’s the kind of stuff that keeps you from letting innings breathe.” And of Hernández’s closing burst in left: “Good jump. Good throw. We kept them from building innings.”

“Winner-take-all tomorrow,” he said in closing. “Should be a fun one.”

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