Will Smith Solid in Return to Atlanta Despite his Struggles

Since coming to the Houston Astros at the trade deadline, reliever Will Smith has continued his less than stellar season. To date, Smith has a 4.70 ERA over 7.2 innings with the Astros, adding to his prior 4.38 ERA over 37 innings with Atlanta, leaving him at 4.43 for the season. His WHIP now sits at 1.5, which is well above his 1.2 career average, and other metrics as well are above career averages including his 1.8 HR/9 and BB/9.

Will Smith had a solid start with the Astros, giving up one run over four appearances. He has since gone down a rocky path, however, that erased that start and then some. Yet, in his return to Atlanta, he showed his former team, fans, and media that he can still perform at a high level.

Smith only appeared one time in the series, but in that showing on Friday, he tossed one scoreless inning with one strikeout and one hit allowed.  The Braves scored three runs to break open the game during the inning before that, so Smith was able to quell their momentum after they made it 6-2.

There is still plenty of season left and as the only southpaw on the roster, Will Smith will have plenty of opportunities to improve his results. Could he possibly have the same impact this year as Phil Maton did last year?  Maton posted a 4.97 ERA in the regular season after being added to the Astros’ roster.  However, he only gave up one run during the entire postseason last year, ending with a 0.73 ERA.

Smith had a similar run last postseason, one that Astros brass probably looked at when making the trade, giving up no runs over 11 innings in 11 different appearances. Time will tell, but if both Maton and Smith are once again dominant in October, the Astros could easily have the best postseason bullpen in MLB.