Smith gains Willie Mac year after Tommy John
SAN FRANCISCO >> In a season in which nearly every core member of the Giants roster spent considerable time on the disabled list, the team awarded its highest honor to a player who returned from a devastating injury to enjoy a career year.
The Giants presented the 2018 Willie Mac Award before Friday’s 3-1 loss to the Dodgers to pitcher Will Smith, who battled back from a Tommy John surgery that wiped out his entire 2017 season to take over as the team’s closer.
“It’s really something special to me,” Smith said. “My teammates, I love those guys to death, they’re awesome and they got me through a tough time last year. It’s something I’ll never forget.”
The award is given annually to the player who best exemplifies the inspiration, character and leadership shown by the Hall of Fame first baseman throughout his 22-year major league career.
Five of Smith’s Giants teammates were honored in the past including injured catcher Buster Posey (2012), right fielder Hunter Pence (2013) and shortstop Brandon Crawford (co-2016).
The Giants’ starting battery featured the other two former Willie Mac Award winners on the roster, as Madison Bumgarner (2014) threw to catcher Nick Hundley (2017) in his last start of the season.
The Giants pushed Bumgarner’s final outing back from Wednesday to Friday so he could face a Dodgers team jockeying for postseason position in the National League. But
THE SCORE
DODGERS 3, GIANTS 1 Up next: Dodgers (Kershaw 9-5) at Giants (Rodriguez 6-4), today,
1:05 p.m., NBCBA
after Hundley spotted the Giants ace a 1-0 lead with his 10th home run of the season, Bumgarner struggled to keep the Dodgers off the bases.
A single from shortstop Manny Machado tied the game 1-1 in the third before third baseman Justin Turner crushed a two-run, go-ahead home run to left field in the fifth.
While the Giants had visions of turning Friday’s series-opener over to Smith in the ninth inning, those plans took a hit as San Francisco’s offense struggled to produce one with runners in scoring position.
Smith underwent surgery in March of 2017 and missed the first month of this season rehabbing from the operation. After rejoining the team in May, Smith showcased dominant form that led manager Bruce Bochy to instill him as the Giants’ closer at the end of June.
In 53 appearances this season, Smith has posted a career-low 1.90 ERA and is tied with Hunter Strickland for the team lead with 14 saves.
Smith ranks among the top relievers in the National League in several statistical categories, as he’s seventh in strikeouts per nine innings with 12.12 and seventh in batting average against with a .179 mark.
While the Giants are one of just two National League teams with four different relievers who have thrown at least 50 innings and own sub-3.00 ERAs, the club’s offense hasn’t given its bullpen many opportunities to shut the door of late.
San Francisco entered the final series of the season with a 5-18 record in September, but Bochy insisted the club had plenty to play for as they still have a chance to prevent the Dodgers from capturing their sixth straight division title.
Los Angeles trailed Colorado by 1.0 game in the National League West heading into the weekend and learned early in the evening that the Rockies had come back against the Nationals to earn their eighth consecutive win.
Though the Dodgers were unable to make up ground Friday, they remained in control of the second wild-card spot in the NL after St. Louis lost to the Chicago Cubs.
While the Giants will likely need to make significant changes to the core of their roster to contend atop the division in the near future, the franchise has its most effective reliever under club control for one more season.
Smith was acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers at the 2016 trade deadline in exchange for former first round draft choice Phil Bickford and catcher Andrew Susac.
Neither former Giant is still a member of the Brewers organization, while Smith is finishing up the best season of his six-year major league career.
Even though the team is wrapping up its second consecutive losing season, several members of the 2018 roster appeared to be strong candidates including Pence, infielder Pablo Sandoval and newcomers Dereck Rodríguez and Derek Holland.
McCovey, 80, was on hand to present the award to Smith during Friday’s pregame ceremony.