plate

Will Smith crouched, his left knee on the ground and his mitt grazing the dirt as his Team USA teammate Mason Miller strode towards the plate.

From there, the only way for his glove to go was up and through the slider that fell out of the strike zone as the Dominican Republic’s Geraldo Perdomo stopped his swing. But, in a full count, home plate umpire Cory Blaser called it strike three.

Miller threw his hands above his head. Smith pumped his first. And the United States advanced to the World Baseball Classic final.

“That’s the work we do in the cage, and off the machine, and drills, and all that coming to fruition, and being applied to in-game,” Smith said in a recent conversation with The Times.

He has a slim chance of replicating that moment during the season, with the ABS challenge system implemented in MLB. If it had been in play during the WBC — as long as the Dominican Republic had challenges left — Perdomo surely would have used one on the final pitch of that 2-1 game.

And yet, as counterintuitive as it may sound, Smith dedicated time and effort during spring training to improving his framing.

“It’s important because you only get two challenges a game, offensively and defensively,” Smith said. “The whole team only gets those two. So the harder I can make it on the other team to challenge pitches, the better. The more strikes I can get and not have to challenge, the better. I think overall, it almost makes it more important, in a way.”

United States pitcher Mason Miller and catcher Will Smith celebrate a WBC semifinal win over the Dominican Republic.

(Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press)

Framing had been a weakness in Smith’s game in recent seasons, according to Statcast’s catching metrics. His best season was 2023, when he recorded four runs saved via pitch framing. But he slipped to minus-eight and minus-10 the next two seasons. Entering the Dodgers’ series against the Phillies this weekend, he was at an even zero after 43 games at catcher this season, including 39 starts.

And now, when Smith doesn’t get a call, he has ABS to fall back on. Entering Friday, he’s challenged 41 calls through the ABS system from behind the plate, the 10th-most of any catcher. And he had a 71% success rate, the ninth-best mark among catchers with at least 20 challenges.

Because the catcher has the best vantage point, teams across the majors have made their catchers, not their pitchers, the point men for ABS challenges on defense.

ABS as a skill, however, isn’t just about getting the challenges right. Knowing the right times to take a risk is also key.

“There’s so many games within the game,” Smith said, “and that’s just another one of them.”

As Smith alluded to, under the challenge system — as opposed to fulltime ABS, which MLB also tested in the minors — it’s still possible to steal strikes.

“I like the challenge system because you still have the human error element to the game,” Smith said. “…Everyone always talks about how it’s a game of life, dealing with failure and dealing with ups and downs — the umpire screwing you or catching a break, that’s part of the game.”

Dodgers catcher Will Smith walks to the dugout after the fifth inning of a Dodgers-Marlins game at Dodger Stadium on April 27.

(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)

Now, the players have recourse for the egregious calls and the biggest moments of the game.

The margins are so slim, however, that if a hitter isn’t convinced enough on a borderline strike call, and the situation dictates caution, he may not challenge.

The same goes for a catcher on a borderline ball call.

That’s where Smith’s work on framing comes in. He describes it as a change in philosophy.

“For me, it’s more just understanding the move,” Smith said. “I had to drill it in a little bit obviously, but more understanding the move of going farther out to get it, working through the ball, more like towards the pitcher, as opposed to letting the ball kind of come back to you. That was just not how I’d ever done it.”

That’s what he did on that last pitch of the WBC semifinals. Moving through the ball creates a more seamless motion, compared to pulling it into the strike zone, making the frame job more convincing. And catching it out in front also stops the ball’s own movement before it gets too far out of the zone.

That’s how Smith made a pitch that appeared to cross the plate below Perdomo’s knees look like a strike from Blaser’s vantage point.

The effect Smith’s spring training work behind the plate will have on the Dodgers’ season will be subtler. Instead of a singular game-defining moment, it’ll be an edge here and there.

But over the course of a long season, that adds up.

Verdugo Hills, the fourth-place finisher in the Valley Mission League with a 10-18 record entering the City Section Division I playoffs, completed a remarkable turnaround on Saturday, winning its fourth consecutive playoff game to take home the Division I title with a 3-1 victory over Taft at Dodger Stadium.

No one was picking the Dons in this one. They had used their two best pitchers in a 10-inning semifinal win over top-seeded Sylmar. But coach Angel Espindola had a plan.

“I’ve got tricks up my sleeve,” he said.

Anthony Velasquez threw a complete-game one-hitter while relying on his defense to make the routine plays and deal with six walks and only one strikeout. At the plate, the hero was first baseman Cutlor Fannon. He had an RBI double in the first inning and an RBI single in the seventh.

But there was drama in the bottom of the seventh inning. The Toreadors’ Victor Jara represented the tying run at the plate with two outs. He hit probably the hardest ball of the day to deep left field.

“The last one scared me,” Velasquez said as he watched left fielder Moises Rodriguez stick out his glove running to catch it and start a victory celebration.

Rodriguez said he “felt all my emotions running through me” as he chased down the fly ball.

“It was surreal,” he said.

Verdugo Hills pitcher Anthony Velasquez threw a complete game in 3-1 win over Taft at Dodger Stadium.

(Craig Weston / For The Times)

Espindola’s best coaching moment came in the bottom of the sixth inning. Taft drew consecutive walks from Velasquez with one out. Espindola went to the mound for a pitcher conference.

“Relax,” is what he told Velasquez.

Then Taft hit into an inning-ending double play.

Verdugo Hills’ fielders more than handled the Dodger Stadium environment. Catcher Miguel Wong threw out a runner trying to steal second. Outfielders Rodriguez, Jack Iafrate and Jessie Olmos combined to catch seven fly balls. And third baseman D’Angelo Duran and shortstop Ethan Sanchez were flawless on ground balls.

As for what happened in the playoffs, Rodriguez said, “We changed our perspective to playing baseball instead of doing baseball. It was let’s have fun.”

The Dodgers beat the San Francisco Giants 5-2 on Thursday night, reclaiming first in the National League West after San Diego lost to Milwaukee. The Dodgers also escaped a third straight series loss at home ahead of their weekend road series against the Angels.

Designated hitter Will Smith, whom Dodgers manager Dave Roberts described earlier in the day as “unflappable,” hit from the leadoff spot and homered to right-center field in the first inning to set the tone for the series-splitting win.

The decision to put Smith in the leadoff spot allowed Roberts to maximize the 31-year-old’s plate appearances without moving other players after Shohei Ohtani was held out of the lineup.

The Dodgers (26-18) are trying to lighten Ohtani’s workload after his recent struggles at the plate. It’s the first time a healthy Ohtani has been out of back-to-back batting orders, except for the paternity list, since the universal designated hitter rule was implemented in 2022.

Though the Dodgers outlasted the Giants (18-26) without Ohtani’s help, the team’s compounded mistakes almost cost it a win.

In the second inning, the bottom of the lineup strung together two hits to score Max Muncy, who reached on a walk. However, after Miguel Rojas softly hit a ground ball to Giants starter Landen Roupp, Teoscar Hernández found himself stranded in no-man’s land after running toward home from third — there was no force play at the plate.

Rojas, who stood on the basepath, slammed his helmet down in frustration after Smith struck out to end the inning.

Will Smith gets a face full of sunflower seeds from teammate Andy Pages after hitting a leadoff home run in the first inning for the Dodgers on Thursday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Rojas wasn’t the only one upset. Dalton Rushing was shown on the game broadcast breaking his bat in the dugout and slamming his leg guard on the back bench after striking out in the fourth inning. Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan shared some words of encouragement with the catcher and patted him on the back.

Sheehan’s night was relatively uneventful before the fifth. He put together three hitless innings before San Francisco’s Rafael Devers hit a one-out single to left field.

From there, things got worse. In the fifth, Jung Hoo Lee hit an inside-the-park home run when Hernández misread the ball off the left-field wall in foul territory, allowing the ball to roll past him. Rojas’ relay throw was too high for Rushing to catch, and Lee slid into home to become the first Giants player to hit an inside-the-park homer at Dodger Stadium.

But the Dodgers responded in the sixth. After Max Muncy reached base on a force out at second and was moved over to third on a single from Hernández, Alex Call delivered a pinch-hit, two-run single to right field. Rojas then blooped a ball over the infield to drive in Call.

Sheehan finished his night after six innings, giving up two earned runs, two hits with six strikeouts and two walks. With combined efforts from relievers Tanner Scott, Alex Vesia and Edgardo Henriquez, the Dodgers shut down the Giants the rest of the way.

ST. LOUIS — Andy Pages tapped the top of his helmet as plate umpire Chris Guccione wound up to punch him out, taking one final stab at extending the Dodgers’ scoring opportunity in the eighth inning.

The Busch Stadium scoreboard lit up with a graphic of the strike zone. The ball flew in, touching the top of the rectangle and turning it red. The call was confirmed. Strike three.

In a 7-2 loss to the Cardinals on Friday, that was one of six at-bats the Dodgers had with runners in scoring position. They didn’t record a hit in any of them.

Instead, the Dodgers (20-12) only scored on Max Muncy’s double with a runner on first in the second inning, and Kyle Tucker’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the sixth. It marked their third straight loss, scoring two or fewer runs in each.

“It’s been hard,” said left fielder Teoscar Hernández, who had a ground-ball single and a walk Friday. “Obviously, we don’t want to start the season the way we have started. But we have done a lot of work. Everybody knows this is not easy, hitting, being consistent. We just have to go up there trying to have good at-bats, create situations, put the ball in play, get on base.

“But I think we got unlucky. A lot of guys have been hitting the ball really good, right at people. But we control what we can control, and just leave the rest to baseball.”

Even amid a down stretch, the Dodgers still showed off their scoring power with a pair of 12-run performances in the last two weeks — even if one was at hitter-friendly Coors Field. And they entered Friday leading the majors with an .802 OPS. So all is not lost.

The top of the batting order, however, isn’t producing. Mookie Betts, who would be batting No. 3 in the order, has been out since early April with a strained right oblique.

Shohei Ohtani and Kyle Tucker have had slow starts. Freddie Freeman has been in an offensive lull since taking over the No. 2 spot last week.

The Dodgers entered Friday with the top three spots in the batting order producing a .734 OPS, ranking 22nd in MLB.

The bottom half of the order, and Pages in particular, was carrying the offense early on. But when those hitters cooled, the top of the order didn’t fill the gap.

“Unfortunately, we have a lot more guys that are not swinging the bats well than that are,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And so shuffling the lineup, I just don’t think that’s a solution right now — outside of versus left versus right [pitching matchups].”

On Friday, the Dodgers scored fewer runs than the Cardinals scored in the first inning alone.

“They swung the bat better than we did,” Roberts said. “And we didn’t play well enough.”

Dodgers right-hander Emmet Sheehan’s start went south in one at-bat.

Dodgers starting pitcher Emmet Sheehan delivers during the first inning Friday against the Cardinals.

(Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images)

With two outs in the first inning and runners on first and second, Sheehan worked ahead to an 0-2 count against Nolan Gorman.

Dodgers catcher Will Smith then attempted a back-pick at second base, but his errant throw bounced to the opposite side of the base and past shortstop Miguel Rojas.

With runners at second and third, Sheehan did not declare he was going to switch to throwing from the stretch instead of the hybrid position. So, he was called for a balk, bringing the first run of the game across the plate.

“Mental mistake,” Sheehan said. “I know the rule. It was just in the moment, I didn’t declare it. And, yeah, unacceptable.”

Gorman battled Sheehan to a full count. Then Sheehan left a high fastball over the plate, and Gorman sent it into the right-field stands for a two-run blast.

Sheehan bounced back with a 1-2-3 second inning. But he surrendered a solo homer to slugger Alec Burleson in the third.

By the time Sheehan exited with two outs in the fifth inning, before Gorman was due up again, he’d given up a season-high eight hits.

“I feel like we’ve been making progress and then taking a step back,” Sheehan said. “And, yeah, it’s definitely frustrating. But we know we need to work on, it’s just fixing it now.”

The Cardinals (19-13) widened their lead in the seventh inning, putting together a three-run rally against reliever Edgardo Henriquez. And the Dodgers offense never threatened a comeback.

“We’re in a little funk offensively, which is certainly obvious,” Roberts said. “But you’ve just got to keep going. I believe in the guys, the hitting coaches do, the guys do. You’ve got to keep working and know that it will click one night and we all come together. But it’s not one at-bat. It’s not one particular hitter that is bringing the group down. We’ve all got to come together and expect things to change.”

Oswald Peraza hit a two-out RBI single in the 10th inning and the Angels snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 4-3 victory over the New York Mets on Saturday night.

Jorge Soler drew a leadoff walk from Austin Warren (0-1) to open the 10th and Jo Adell singled to load the bases with no outs.

Warren got Josh Lowe and Vaughn Grissom on flyouts and was one strike away from escaping the jam when Peraza dunked an 0-2 curve into left-center for the win.

The Angels got 3 2/3 scoreless innings from their beleaguered bullpen. Sam Bachman struck out three in 1 2/3 innings and Ryan Zeferjahn (2-1) threw a scoreless ninth and 10th for the win.

Brett Baty reached on catcher’s interference to open the Mets’ 10th. But Zeferjahn got Bo Bichette to ground into a double play and, after an intentional walk to Juan Soto, Francisco Alvarez to pop out to second.

Reid Detmers limited the Mets to one run and four hits through six innings but ran into trouble in the seventh, when Mark Vientos doubled and Marcus Semien singled. Andy Ibáñez’s sacrifice fly pulled the Mets within 3-2 and Tyrone Taylor’s RBI single tied it.

Austin Slater and Ronny Mauricio then reached on infield singles to load the bases. But Bachman replaced Detmers and got Bichette to ground to third baseman Peraza, who threw home for a forceout, and struck out Soto with an 89-mph slider to end the inning.

Mets ace Nolan McLean was one strike away from escaping a second-and-third, one-out jam in the fourth when he struck out Lowe. But Grissom hit a two-run single to make it 3-1.

The Angels took a 1-0 lead in the first on consecutive two-out singles by Nolan Schanuel, Soler and Adell. Schanuel crossed the plate as Soler was thrown out at third by Slater from right field.

Plate umpire John Tumpane ruled Schanuel touched the plate before Soler was tagged, allowing the run to score. New York didn’t challenge, but replays showed Soler was tagged before Schanuel reached the plate.

The Mets tied it at 1 in the third on Bichette’s RBI single.

Garret Anderson was a Hall of Fame-caliber major league baseball player who never made the Hall of Fame. Baseball is a numbers game, and GA didn’t have enough of them.

When he finished his career and was eligible for the vote in 2016, he got just one vote. That represented 0.2% of the total. It also meant that he wasn’t even on the ballot the next year.

So, when he died Friday, way too soon at age 53, it presented an interesting twist. Had he lived into his 80s or 90s, there would have been few still around to remember anything about him but statistics. Now, the memory of his underrated greatness remains. What he did and how he did it is still in the frontal lobe of those who watched and those who wrote and broadcast about him.

He was the quiet man who played for various versions of the Angels for 15 seasons — the California Angels, the Anaheim Angels and the Los Angeles Angels. Right there, you have a Hall of Fame problem. A team struggling so hard to find its own identity does not attract the deep and passionate interest of the bulk of the writers/voters who live in time zones whose bed time is the same as game time in Anaheim.

It should have mattered that GA delivered the most important hit in Angels’ history, the game-winner in the 2002 World Series. It was Game 7, it was at Angel Stadium and the opponent was the San Francisco Giants, who had superstar slugger Barry Bonds and his line drives that created dents in outfield fences, except when they flew over them, which was often.

Anderson came to the plate in the third inning. The bases were loaded and Anderson took a shoulder-high fastball, slapped it down the right-field line and three runs came home. The Angels won 4-1 and haven’t come close to a World Series title, much less a World Series, since then. That at least got Anderson into the Angels Hall of Fame in 2016.

Mike Scioscia was the manager then and the most effective the team has had. He is the one who, Saturday, called Anderson’s Game 7 hit the greatest in team history.

“I remember looking out there when he went to the plate with the bases loaded,” Scioscia said, “and thinking he is exactly the guy I want there right now.”

Scioscia called Anderson’s death “a punch in the gut.” He said the player everybody called GA, didn’t have to be managed. “He was a resource for me,” Scioscia said. “He had an incredible inner drive. He was one of the most talented players I have been around. I’d call him a superstar.”

Scioscia, reminded that his “superstar” didn’t make baseball’s Hall of Fame, said, “Sometimes, great players slip through the cracks.”

Anderson’s not-quite-Hall-of-Fame performances included three All-Star game appearances. He was the game’s MVP in 2003 and also won the home run derby that year. He beat out Albert Pujols, then of the Cardinals. His career batting average was .293, he hit 287 home runs and had 1,365 runs batted in. He went to the plate to hit, not to watch. He never drew more than 38 walks in a season and never struck out more than 100 times.

Yet the statistic he felt gave him the best chance for the Hall of Fame was number of hits. Getting 3,000 hits would make him almost an automatic choice. He ended with 2,529, and near the end of his career with the Angels, he sat down with a reporter to discuss just that, plus one other thing.

Garret Anderson, left, talks with Jackie Autry, widow of Angels team owner Gene Autry, as he is inducted into the Angels Hall of Fame on Aug. 20, 2016.

(Reed Saxon / Associated Press)

It was uncharacteristic for Anderson to have this sort of conversation with anybody outside of his teammates, or maybe his family. It was lunch at Zov’s in Tustin and the question was how this voting system works and could maybe 200 more hits get him in. Could 2,750 do it? He wasn’t a big ego guy by any stretch of the imagination, but the Hall of Fame seemed to be dangling there and any baseball player who could see that for himself in the distance had to be intrigued.

There was no discussion of the intangibles, no consideration of the Angels being the Angels and what effect that will always have. Do voters even look much at other stats, such as his 24 walks and 35 home runs in the same season? The reporter wasn’t a great help. He wasn’t even a voter. Anderson wasn’t really stressed out over the Hall of Fame premise, just kind of fascinated. The reporter was probably more encouraging than realistic. Zov’s food was good, the company great.

Eventually, Anderson got to the second issue that had prompted the lunch: How to deal with Times columnist TJ Simers. He asked because the reporter was once Simers’ boss. Simers tended to probe and kid and seek to stir up things, but Anderson also recognized that he could be highly accurate, perceptive and even fun. Anderson, as a team star, was bracing for frequent visits. How should he handle it?

The answer was simple: Don’t lie to him. Don’t hide from him. If he is being a jerk, tell him so. He will accept that. If he is wrong, tell him that and tell him how. If he insults you, insult him back. He loves that.

Tim Mead, former director of public relations, when asked for his thoughts on Anderson, said that his perspective or quotes would not be as telling or as meaningful as simply watching the tape of Anderson’s three-run double that won the 2002 World Series for the Angels.

“Just watch it, just watch his reaction when he gets to second base,” Mead said Saturday.

And so we did. Anderson slaps his hit down the right field line, just fair. Angel Stadium goes crazy. Anderson stops at second base, claps his hands four times, then stands there quietly. Little emotion. Little hoopla. No contortions for “SportsCenter.” He has done his job. He has done what was expected of him. There are six more innings left. Let’s celebrate when it is truly over.

That was Garret Anderson, GA to his friends, a Hall of Fame player in all the ways that numbers don’t show.