ATLANTA (AP) — One day after Braves fans gave a stirring ovation to Marcell Ozuna in his first return to Atlanta with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Dominic Smith provided a reminder that the Braves have another veteran providing a lead role at designated hitter.
Before Ozuna's first at-bat in the Braves' 6-3 win over Pittsburgh on Friday night, Ozuna tipped his batting helmet to the fans and put his hand over his heart in his response to the loud ovation.
Smith showed in the Braves' 6-3 win on Saturday that Atlanta continues to enjoy strong production at designated hitter. Smith lined an opposite-field two-run homer toe highlight the Braves' three-run fifth inning.
Smith, 30, also had a single and is hitting .309 with six homers and 28 RBIs. He already has his most homers since hitting six for Boston and Cincinnati in 2024.
The left-handed hitting Smith initially thought his liner might fall for a single or even fade foul. Instead the shot stayed fair and found the left-field seats.
“I really wanted to focus on getting a good pitch to hit and just hit a line drive and not try to do too much,” Smith said. “And when I hit it, I’m like, all right, get down, get out.”
Smith said he put better contact on a long fly ball to center field in the third inning that Oneil Cruz caught in front of the wall. In his next at-bat, Smith lined the homer on a swing designed just to drive in Matt Olson from third base.
“It's one of those funny moments,” Smith said. “I hit one hard to center field that gets caught and hit one that seemingly should have been a single and it goes out. So yeah, I’m just very blessed and very happy, and like I said, this team is just fun."
Braves manager Walt Weiss said Smith “is in a really good place. He's got a plan and you can see it and he executes it. He's been great for us.”
Weiss said the fans' ovation for Ozuna in the opening game of the series was memorable.
“I thought it was great last night, that ovation he got,” Weiss said. “It got stronger and stronger as time went on before the at-bat. People started to realize what was going on, and it was a great ovation. I mean, he’s beloved here. He was the ultimate teammate, a fun guy to be around. So that was a feel-good moment seeing that ovation for him.”
Brandon Lowe was the Pirates' designated hitter on Saturday.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
