Smith has no doubts despite slump
Not even great players are immune to lengthy slumps, as Mike Trout showed in August, when he hit .218 with one homer and seven runs batted in. Joe Smith’s struggles have lasted half as long, but considering the setup man’s reputation as one of baseball’s most reliable relievers, they are almost as surprising.
The sidearm-throwing Smith was 4-3 with a 2.61 earned-run on Aug. 22. He went 0-2 with a 14.21 ERA in his next eight games, giving up 10 runs and 17 hits in 61⁄3 innings. His only worse eight-game stretch was in 2008, his second year in the big leagues, when he had a 14.54 ERA (seven runs, 41⁄3 innings) from July 26 to Aug. 9.
“I have to keep grinding; there’s nothing else I can do,” Smith said. “I’m not doubting myself or my stuff. Sometimes you need that one ball to bounce your way, that one call to go your way, to get you back on that roll.”
The lowlight of Smith’s slump came on Aug. 29 in Cleveland, when he entered a 3-3 game in the eighth and gave up three hits, a walk and a grand slam to Yan Gomes. He gave up a run, two hits and two walks against the Dodgers on Monday.
“I got beat in Cleveland, but my stuff the last three games was as good as I’ve had all year,” said Smith, whose ERA is 3.88. “That’s what ticks me off. When everything is clicking and you’re still giving up runs, it gets to you more.”
Instant relief
Two weeks removed from season-ending surgery to have bone chips removed from his elbow, lefthander C.J. Wilson said his arm feels “way better than it did before the surgery.”
Wilson, who went 8-8 with a 3.89 ERA in 21 starts, had a similar procedure after 2012 and went 17-7 with a 3.39 ERA in 2013. He is confident he will bounce back in 2016, the final year of his five-year, $77.5-million contract.
“I’ll be 100%, zero issues,” he said. “My record is to be pretty durable, but at the same time, being durable means putting a lot of mileage on your body. This is small hiccup in that regard, but I look to be back on top of my form next year.”
Wilson said no one pitch in his vast repertoire puts more stress on his elbow, but he will have to make one concession next season.
“I need to avoid trying to throw the ball with max effort repeatedly, over and over again,” he said. “I don’t have anything too flagrant [in my delivery]. I just need to stay on top of my mechanics overall.”
Short hops
Matt Shoemaker, who missed Monday’s start because of a forearm strain, pushed his throwing program from 90 feet to 120 feet Wednesday. The right-hander will take Thursday off and hopes to extend to 140 feet or so Friday before his next step, throwing off a mound. ... When Justin Ruggiano and Kole Calhoun homered in the first inning Tuesday, it was only the third time in Angel Stadium history that both teams hit leadoff homers. The others: Sept. 25, 1996 (Randy Velarde and Seattle’s Joey Cora) and Sept. 8, 1995 (Tony Phillips and Minnesota’s Chuck Knoblauch).