Dodgers’ Will Smith ‘grinding’ through slump as catching takes its toll

SAN DIEGO — Here’s the thing about being a major-league catcher – it catches up with you.

An All-Star for the first time this season, Dodgers catcher Will Smith has entered the dog days, the time of year when all of the innings behind the plate, all of the foul balls off of various parts of the body start to take their toll.

Not surprisingly, Smith went into Saturday’s game with just six hits in his past 35 at-bats and without a home run in 80 plate appearances since the All-Star break. Most disturbing, Smith had struck out in 14 of those 35 at-bats, a disturbing amount of swing-and-miss for a hitter who had more walks than strikeouts this season until this nine-game slump.

“He was probably a little tired for awhile and built some habits,” Dodgers hitting coach Aaron Bates said. “He battled some injuries early in the year and developed some habits where he was just shooting balls the other way, trying to play through some stuff. But he’s a gamer. That’s just how he is.

“He’s working through some things. He’s trending better but it’s not going to be lightning in a bottle where one thing magically fixes it.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he could tell Smith was struggling because “he’s missing a lot of fastballs he normally moves forward.” But he didn’t see it as a sign of fatigue from catching roughly three-quarters of the Dodgers’ games.

“I’m very mindful of it,” Roberts said. “He hasn’t DH’d a lot because of J.D. (Martinez). … Will is a huge part of what we’re doing so I am definitely mindful of his workload. But it’s hard. It’s a balancing act.”

Smith dismissed the idea that fatigue was playing a part in his recent slump or the lack of power over his past 27 games (a .368 slugging percentage and just one home run in that time). The issue is mechanical, he said.

“I’m just getting longer now. A lot more swing-and-miss,” Smith said, acknowledging that he has had to “grind” through “some physical stuff.”

“I think the trigger is … it (his swing) is not direct to the ball. I go to swing and it’s more going backwards rather than going right to the ball. It’s a little back, a little down and then to it and you’ve only got milliseconds to hit a baseball.”

That has led to the swing-and-miss and “carving base hits to the right side, Bates said. A sure sign Smith has regained his swing, Bates said, will be when he starts elevating balls to left field again.

Sure enough – Smith hit a home run to left field in his first at-bat against Padres left-hander Blake Snell on Saturday.

“Overall, this whole year I went through some stuff, had to adjust. I think that probably caught up to me a month or two later,” Smith said. “It’s baseball. It’s hard. You feel really good sometimes and you feel really bad sometimes. You just try to grind through. You’re always making adjustments and tinkering.”

Veteran right-hander Shelby Miller will be eligible to come off the 60-day injured list and Roberts said he has been throwing during workouts at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Arizona, and is “trending” in the right direction.

Miller went on the IL with an ill-defined neck issue in mid-June, but Roberts said it was diagnosed as a nerve problem.

“It went from his neck to his finger, where he just didn’t have feeling in his fingers,” he said.

The 32-year-old Miller has been progressing in his rehab but there is no timeline for his return.

Martinez was back in the lineup Saturday after missing five games with an injury to his groin-hamstring area. The issue has flared up twice before day games so Roberts said Martinez will play Sunday but not Monday (a 1:10 p.m. start). …

Third baseman Max Muncy remained out of the lineup and limited to pinch-running availability due to a contusion to his left wrist suffered when he was hit by a pitch Thursday. Roberts said he is hopeful Muncy can return to the lineup Sunday.

Dodgers (RHP Lance Lynn, 7-9, 6.32 ERA) at Padres (LHP Rich Hill, 7-10, 4.76 ERA), Sunday, 4:10 p.m., ESPN, 570 AM

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