Will Smith joins legacy of injured Dodgers playoff heroes with silencer in Philly

The Dodgers and Phillies were locked in an epic pitchers' duel through six innings of Game 2 of the NLDS. Blake Snell and Jesús Luzardo had matched each other beat-for-beat, and Snell got out of the sixth with two men on and just one out thanks to a gutsy at-bat against Bryce Harper that ended in a strikeout swinging and a beautiful diving play from Miguel Rojas to get former Dodger Trea Turner out at third on a groundout.

LA gained real momentum for the first time since the first inning in the seventh, when Freddie Freeman put himself and Teoscar Hernández on the corners with a double, which got Luzardo lifted from the game. Hernández scored on a fielder's choice to give the Dodgers their first run of the night, then Max Muncy walked to put runners at first and third again.

Andy Pages popped out, then up came Will Smith.

Smith missed the last three weeks of the regular season with a bone bruise, and his first two at-bats in NLDS Game 1 (after coming in behind Ben Rortvedt) ended in strikeouts.

He hadn't gotten a hit down since Sept. 9. In the highest-leverage situation of the Dodgers' year so far, he smacked a two-run single to put the Dodgers up by three.

Will Smith breaks open Dodgers-Phillies NLDS Game 2 with first hit since Sept. 9

Last year, Freeman was infamously nursing two pretty severe injuries in his ribcage and ankle but still pulled off the moment of the World Series — that Game 1, walk-off grand slam that'll still give you chills just thinking about. This isn't the World Series, but Smith is just as unlikely a hero, who just singlehandedly got the Dodgers one step closer to winning their second consecutive trophy.

After the Smith single, Shohei Ohtani followed up to bring another in, his first hit and RBI of the series after going 0-5 with four strikeouts in Game 1.

For a Dodgers' offense that was completely stifled in the first six innings of the game, it allowed fans at home to breathe a sigh of relief when they woke up and got to work, capitalizing when Luzardo dared to show cracks in an otherwise rock-solid performance for Philadelphia.

Should Smith have ever been in doubt, really? He almost pulled off a .300/.400/.500 regular season before he got hurt. We were waiting to see when that version of him would reemerge, and it did at just the right time.