Will Smith hits go-ahead HR on birthday, Dodgers sweep D-Backs

Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Will Smith (16) celebrates after hitting a two-run home run during the eighth inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium. LOS ANGELES — The script couldn’t have been written any cleaner in Hollywood. On a night that already carried the weight of celebration — a birthday, a bobblehead giveaway, and a packed house of 53,340 at Dodger Stadium — Will Smith delivered the kind of moment that has come to define both his career and this Dodgers team.

Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning Saturday night, Smith turned on a 98-mph fastball and drove it straightaway to center field, a no-doubt, go-ahead home run that lifted the Dodgers to a 3-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks and completed a season-opening sweep. “Late in innings we never feel like we’re out of the game; it always feels like someone is gonna come up with a big hit,” Smith said postgame. “Tonight it was me that got the big hit.

” Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Will Smith (16) celebrates with right fielder Teoscar Hernandez (37) after hitting a two-run home run during the eighth inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger St... Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Will Smith (16) celebrates with right fielder Teoscar Hernandez (37) after hitting a two-run home run during the eighth inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger St... It felt inevitable, even if it didn’t look that way for most of the night.

Smith entered the eighth inning 0-for-3, emblematic of a Dodgers offense that sputtered through seven innings. They managed just four hits through the first five and only one more before Smith’s decisive swing — a quiet night that suddenly roared to life. And yet, if there’s a setting where quiet nights flip into defining moments, it’s this one — and often, it’s Smith at the center of it.