Of course you do. Smoltz valiantly tried and famously failed to crack into the Red Sox’ rotation this season. He made eight starts with the Sox, finishing 2-5 with an 8.32 ERA. Opposing batters hit .341 against him in the hitter-friendly AL. In a matter of two months, the Red Sox promoted, started and released the future Hall of Famer. Smoltz’s career, we could only assume, was finished.
Until Sunday. After nearly three weeks away, Smoltz made his comeback to a major league mound, taking the ball for the Cardinals in their series finale with the last-place Padres in San Diego. For Smoltz, arguably the worst starting pitcher in baseball this season, expectations weren’t exactly high.
Certainly, no one expected this.
In a picture-perfect homecoming to the National League, Smoltz pitched five innings of shutout ball against the Padres. He allowed three hits, struck out nine Padre hitters and walked none. He begins his stint in the Senior Circuit this season with an ERA of zero and a WHIP of 0.60. The Red Sox only wish that was the John Smoltz who showed up at Fenway in June.
At one point, Smoltz struck out seven consecutive Padres, becoming the first Cardinal ever to accomplish that feat. To record those seven strikeouts, he needed just 25 pitches. That’s the kind of domination that looked impossible for Smoltz mere months ago.
Of his nine K’s, none came on a pitch faster than 87. His fastball is a thing of the past — he’s developed his curveball, slider, and changeup in his old age, and in the National League, that’s what’s working. His out pitch is a simple splitter, but it’s what made him phenomenal on Sunday.
This was Smoltz in his element. He may be 42 years old, but he’s back where he belongs. He’s in the National League, where he first broke in as a wide-eyed 21-year-old rookie and pitched for 21 years. Half his life, literally, has been spent in this league.
He knows the teams. He knows the ballparks. He knows each of the 16 pitchers’ mounds in the NL like the back of his hand. He’s 42 years old, but he’s still competing like he’s 22. He’s still got it.
For the Red Sox, this is all a little hard to believe. In his first game back to the big leagues as an American Leaguer, Smoltz gave up five runs in five innings to the Nationals — the Nationals! — on June 25. He spent a month and a half trying to fight his way back from the slump he began, and it just never happened. But now, here he is again.
In Boston, it’s hard to feel any bitterness toward Smoltz. No hard feelings — both sides tried to make things work, and both sides failed. Smoltz tried to find success in the AL as a crafty 42-year-old and he got knocked around. The Red Sox tried to keep him aboard, but they instead found a way to replace him with a promotion from within.
Everyone went their separate ways, and everyone’s happy. Smoltz was a class act throughout his struggle in Boston, endearing himself to the city that watched him fail. On some level, you always wanted to see him find success again, even if it wasn’t in a Boston uniform. He deserved to keep winning.
And in St. Louis, he’s found a place in which he can not only win but win meaningful games with October implications. With Smoltz’s first W on Sunday, the Cardinals maintained an eight-game lead over the Cubs for first place in the NL Central — Smoltz is on his way back to the postseason, where historically he’s thrived.
It’s still early in the Cardinals’ Smoltz experiment. Plenty could still go wrong. Maybe once he’s truly tested by a top-flight team, we’ll see him start to crack.
But so far, it’s not happening. On Sunday, Smoltz personally scored more runs than he allowed.When he reached on a fielder’s choice with one out in the second, he was able to score from first on a pair of singles from the top of the Cards’ order.
After a start like this, Smoltz has to wonder — why wasn’t he here all along?
The Senior Circuit is where Smoltz belongs. He proved it for 21 years, and after a short detour, he’s now proving it again. For Smoltz, this is how it’s meant to be.
