There haven’t been a lot of reasons for the Dodgers to be smiling over the past month.
After surging out of the gates to a 15-5 record and the best record in baseball, Los Angeles looked like the two-time defending champs who were better than ever.
But everything changed over the last four weeks.
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Injury list stints for Mookie Betts, Edwin Diaz and Tyler Glasnow robbed Los Angeles of its depth, while stars like Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Kyle Tucker have massively underperformed. The result was a 10-14 record and more questions than answers a quarter of the way into the season.
However, the Dodgers proved that the pressure to three-peat — or their recent struggles — aren’t having any lasting effect on finding joy while at the ballpark.
Will Smith, who typically serves as the teams day-to-day catcher, hit a leadoff homerun to give the Dodgers the early lead. But it’s what he did later in the game that drew the most eyes.
In one of the funniest moments of the season that’s now gone viral, catcher Smith pulled off an epic prank on star pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Without Yamamoto noticing, Smith wanted to see how many pieces of bubblegum he could put in Yamamoto’s hood without the World Series MVP noticing. The whole prank caught the attention of the broadcast crew, who noticed it in the ninth inning and zoomed in for a close-up on Yamamoto’s hood filled with gum.
With everyone in a good mood following the 5-2 victory over the Giants, Smith was asked about the prank postgame.
“You see that?” Smith said while laughing. “I got eight in there, yeah exactly. He has no idea too.”
While it’s unknown how Yamamoto took the prank, it’s safe to say that the Dodgers are still surrounded by good vibes and may be turning a corner after back-to-back wins over their rivals up north.
