ARLINGTON — The maturation of Josh Smith, first baseman, appears to progress almost daily.
Smith, who had never played first base until this season, has now started 14 games and remains error-free. Of the 54 players with at least 100 innings, only 18 are without an error. In addition, he’s one of 23 first basemen with at least 100 innings in the field and a positive Defensive Runs Saved figure (+1 entering Saturday).
And each day, it seems, the Rangers see some other sign of progress. For example, Smith has twice remained by the bag in the last week on ground balls to the right side. Only three weeks ago, the natural shortstop ranged far to his right to try to field a ball at Tampa Bay, only to leave first base unattended. It was a shortstop’s instinct. But it left the Rangers in a bad spot in a close loss.
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“First base is not an easy position because; that play being one reason,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “You want them to try to learn from experiences of when things don’t go well. So, I think he’s made an adjustment.
Though the Rangers lost 7-6 to Seattle in 12 innings Friday, Smith had a particularly sharp game at first base, which included several scoops and a good adjustment to cleanly field a hard grounder to first that took a strange, late bounce in the ninth inning.
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“I mean, we can talk about pitching and coming back, but his defense last night was really impressive. Some of those plays he made — and the pick with what was at stake — again really impressive. He’s adjusting really well over there.”
Twitter/X:@Evan_P_Grant
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