Will Smith Tosses Scoreless Inning in Brevard County


Will Smith
Will Smith
Milwaukee Brewers left-handed reliever Will Smith pitched one scoreless inning on Tuesday night, as he began his road back to the Majors with a rehab appearance in Brevard County. Smith is rehabbing a torn LCL that he suffered during spring training while taking off his shoe.

Smith pitched the seventh inning of Brevard County’s 6-4 win over the Clearwater Threshers at Space Coast Stadium.

“The main thing with a guy like him is his health,” said Manatees manager Joe Ayrault. “How do you feel after an outing, getting his feet back going and getting him pitching. It’s great having a guy like him… an experienced big leaguer, all the guys are gonna be watching him and it’s great for our bullpen guys to watch his routine, watching him warm up and what he does pregame. He’s had a lot of success up there, it’s great having him.”

Smith did not walk a batter, struck out one and allowed one hit in his outing on Tuesday he threw 15 pitches, nine for strikes to the four batters he faced. Smith said he knew prior to the game that he would be pitching, but that didn’t keep the nerves from creeping up on him.

“It was awesome,” he said. “The knee felt great and a lot of excitement for sure. A little nervous when the phone rang (in the bullpen), but it felt good to be back out there.” Smith struck out Malquin Canelo to start the frame, but was victimized by a bit if bad luck when Scott Kingery hit a ball to third base that hit off the bag and went over Jose Cuas’ head for a double.

“I was a little out of my delivery, a little too quick, but that’s just I think from the excitement of being back in a game situation with real hitters,” Smith said. “Just trying to get outs at this point and make quality pitches that are effective in the Major Leagues. The ball off the bag, I’m okay with that swing and that outcome, it’s just baseball right there.”

Smith said that when fellow reliever Gage Smith went in during the sixth inning, he knew he would be next. “That was nice to know I could get into my routine and get warm,” he said. An off day tomorrow (Wednesday) and then back out here again Thursday, probably the same thing.”

As Ayrault said earlier, it is always important for the guys who are rehabbing to be there for the young guys on the roster at this level and Smith is more than willing to do his part. “They got questions, I’ll be more than happy to answer them,” he said. “If they just want to sit there and talk or tell stories, that’s fine too. I am a young guy up there and I still love sitting down with the veterans and listening to stories. It doesn’t always have to be about baseball, but more times than not, it turns into that. If they have questions or want to talk about pitching or pitch selection, I’m more than willing to help with that.”


Following his appearance on Thursday against Clearwater, Smith is scheduled to go to Triple-A Colorado Springs for a couple games, before returning to Milwaukee, likely during the first week of June. 

This article originally appeared on the now defunct Examiner.com on 5/24/16

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