Will Smith went 2-for-4 with a home run in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 4-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the series opener at Chase Field.
It was Smith’s 50th career home run, which tied him with Mike Piazza as the fastest catchers in National League history to reach that mark. Both Smith and Piazza hit their 50th homer in their 233rd game.
However, Piazza did it in his age-26 season, while Smith turned 27 years old in March. Piazza accomplished the feat in 1995 when he was an All-Star and Silver Slugger Award winner.
Smith has now played in parts of four seasons with the Dodgers and hit a career-high 25 long balls last season.
While Smith has not been happy with his overall results so far this season, he has remained productive by hitting .250/.348/.450 with a 139 wRC+ in 12 games.
Dodgers catchers Will Smith and Mike Piazza each needed exactly 233 games to hit 50 career HR.
By games played, they're the two fastest catchers to reach 50 HR in National League history (h/t @EliasSports), minimum of 50% of games played at catcher. pic.twitter.com/QjQNdypmPO
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 26, 2022
Among catchers with at least 600 plate appearances since 2019, Smith ranks first in wRC+ (136) and wOBA (.372), second in on-base percentage (.364), third in slugging percentage (.523) and FanGraphs’ WAR (7.9), and sixth in home runs (50) and batting average (.262).
Although his sample size is small so early in his career, Smith has also hit at a hall-of-fame level.
Among catchers all-time with at least 800 plate appearances, his .887 OPS ranks third behind Mike Piazza and Mickey Cochrane and ahead of Bill Dickey and Roy Campanella. His 136 wRC+ also ranks fourth, trailing the leader Piazza by four points.
Cody Bellinger set Dodgers franchise record
Cody Bellinger hit two home runs against the San Diego Padres on Sunday, giving him his first multi-home run game since Aug. 11, 2021, and the 14th of his career.
That 14 career multi-homer games is the most by any player in Dodgers franchise history through their age-26 season.
Additionally, Bellinger was named National League Player of the Week for games played April 18-24.
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