On a night when Shohei Ohtani was scratched from his scheduled start, the Dodgers absorbed another blow to their lineup. Catcher Will Smith left Wednesday’s 3-0 loss to the Pirates at PNC Park after taking a foul ball off the back of his right hand in the second inning.
Smith finished the frame behind the plate but was removed following an evaluation in the dugout. X-rays came back negative, and the team announced the injury as a right-hand contusion. Still, manager Dave Roberts admitted there is some uncertainty.
“We’ll know more tomorrow when he wakes up, see if the swelling dissipates,” Roberts said. “But we can’t afford to lose him. I guess we’ll know more in the coming days.”
Dodgers’ Will Smith Exits With Hand Injury in Loss to Pirates
Vote For Your Favorite Dodgers Duo: Ohtani – Yamamoto, Betts – Freeman, Hernandez – Hernandez
Dalton Rushing replaced Smith in the third inning, going 1-for-2 with a single while also drawing a walk after being clipped on his own right hand during a swing. Smith and Rushing are the only catchers on the Dodgers’ 40-man roster, leaving the club little margin for error. A taxi squad addition remains possible as the series wraps up in Pittsburgh.
The timing of the injury is particularly concerning. Smith entered the game batting .297 with 17 home runs and 61 RBIs, and had just delivered a walk-off homer against Arizona on Sunday. After enduring a dismal August at the plate (.147/.318/.250), he appeared to be rediscovering his rhythm.
That production is badly needed for a team struggling to generate offense. Los Angeles went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position Wednesday and stranded the bases loaded twice. The loss prevented them from gaining ground on the Phillies for the NL’s No. 2 seed and left their NL West lead at just 2 ½ games over San Diego.
“Obviously, we had good at-bats getting on-base today,” Freddie Freeman said. “We just didn’t get the hit today. The game of baseball is hard… We obviously didn’t do that tonight. Just gotta move on to tomorrow.”
The Dodgers’ bats have cooled at the wrong time. Since July 1, their .463 winning percentage ranks near the bottom of the National League. Losing Smith, especially after Max Muncy’s recurring IL stints, would only deepen those problems.
For now, the Dodgers can exhale that tests revealed no fracture. Smith’s durability has been a hallmark—just two prior IL stints since his 2019 debut—but the team will monitor closely. October hopes may hinge on his availability.