LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Louisville native Will Smith keeps living the dream.
It’s one thing to win your third World Series ring. It’s another to win it with a game-winning solo homer in the top of the 11th inning of a 5-4 Game 7 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in a series destined to go down as one of the greatest ever played.
Smith came to the plate with two out, after Shohei Ohtani had grounded out to second. On a 2-0 count, Smith lifted a Shane Bieber slider deep to left field and into the stands. He rounded the bases, screaming.
“I was fired up,” Smith told FOX. “We knew we needed to get a run there. To be able to come in clutch, though, that was huge. You dream of those moments. Extra innings, to put your team ahead. I’ll remember that one forever.”
It was the second hit in six at-bats in the game for the University of Louisville and Kentucky Country Day graduate, who also drove in go-ahead runs in Games 2 and 6 of the series.
"He hung a slider," Smith said. "And I banged it."
Smith was yelling, "Go ball! Go ball!" on the way to first base. "I was just hoping I got enough of it," he told reporters after the game."
Smith also set a new record for innings caught in a single World Series, catching all 73 innings of the 2025 Fall Classic, two more than Lou Criger caught for the Boston Americans (later, the Red Sox) in the 1903 Series.
That was a significant feat for a player who worked his way back from a hairline fracture in his right hand suffered on a foul ball in Pittsburgh on Sept. 3. He would play only one of the final 23 games of the regular season, and did not play in the Wild Card round of the National League playoffs. He entered the first two games of the National League Division Series in a reserve role, then caught the rest of the way -- including every pitch of an 18-inning win in Game 3 of the World Series.
The Dodgers are the first team to repeat as World Series champions since the New York Yankees from 1998-2000.
Smith, 30, signed a 10-year, $140 million contract extension this past March, the longest contract for a catcher in Major League history.
Teammate Freddie Freeman nicknamed him, "the silent assassin." Others recognize his indispensable role for the best team in baseball.
"He’s a superstar,” Dodgers' pitcher Clayton Kershaw told The Athletic. “When you talk about superstars on our team, he’s a superstar. He really is. He might not get the publicity of these other guys, but he’s a superstar.”
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who threw 96 pitches in the Dodgers win on Friday, escaped a bases-loaded jam in the ninth and pitched 2 2/3 innings for his third win on the Series.
“He was the MVP of this series,” Smith said. “That was incredible. I told him if you give us one (inning) we’re going to win. He gave us three.”
Smith gave the Dodgers every inning. And he has a lot more to give.
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