Saturday’s exciting come-from-behind 3-2 Dodgers win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in front of a sold-out Dodger Stadium crowd of 53,340 to complete a three-game sweep of their division rivals to kick off the 2026 regular season will forever be remembered for Dodgers catcher Will Smith‘s dramatic bottom-of-the-eighth-inning, two-out, seven-pitch, 414-foot home run to center field to give the defending World Champions the lead (and win).

But that lead (and win) never would have happened were it not for the four-pitch unintentional (intentional) walk of Dodgers future Hall-of-Fame infielder Mookie Betts ahead of Smith. It was very obvious that 27-year-old D-backs right-hander Juan Morillo wanted no part of Betts.

Unfortunately for Morillo, the decision of D-backs manager Torey Lovullo to have him ‘pitch around’ Bett’s failed miserably, as it put the tying run on base in front of the now 3-for-11 (.273) Smith, who now leads the National League with two home runs and five RBIs.

“I just feel prepared, I feel calm and feel under control and not trying to do too much,” Smith told reporters postgame of his blazing hot start to the season. “And I’ve had success, so that brings confidence in those situations. Knowing the pitcher’s kind of panicking out there, feels stressed, but I’m not as stressed as them.”

“We call him the quiet assassin,” Dodgers first baseman (and fellow future first-ballot Hall of Famer) Freddie Freeman said of Smith postgame.

Although it’s way too early to get overly excited about the Dodgers hot start, Dodgers fans have got to love this:

Play Ball!

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