The Blue Jays’ Justin Smoak, centre, lines up a high five during Monday’s game against the Boston Red Sox in Toronto.Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images
As the Toronto Blue Jays' season progresses on its downward trajectory, Justin Smoak continues to shine during an epic career year.
With Edwin Encarnacion having departed for the greener pastures of the Cleveland Indians and Jose Bautista, at the age 36 and no longer the masher he once was, Smoak's play remains one of the few reasons to venture out to see the last-place team perform these days.
Starting pitcher Marcus Stroman has put on a good show all year, Ryan Tepera has been a revelation out of the bullpen, and third baseman Josh Donaldson, when healthy, will lift the fans out of their seats with his all-round play.
But on a consistent basis, nobody has been more important to the Blue Jays during the course of the 2017 Major League Baseball season than the hulking, soft-spoken first baseman who continues to swat home runs like they're nobody's business.
"It's a great story," Toronto manager John Gibbons proclaimed on Tuesday before the Blue Jays played their second of a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox at Rogers Centre.
On Friday night against the Minnesota Twins, Smoak swatted his 35th home run of the season off Bartolo Colon, establishing a new franchise single-season record for switch hitters. The old mark of 34 was established by Jose Cruz Jr. in 2001.
In Monday's opening game against the Red Sox, Smoak launched home run No. 36, a two-run shot in the ninth inning off Boston reliever Craig Kimbrel that cut Boston's lead to 6-5, which would be the final score.
Smoak's home-run total ties him tied for second over all in the American League with Oakland's Khris Davis, trailing only rookie sensation Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees, who entered play on Tuesday having swatted 37.
And Smoak has made it a habit this season of delivering late in games. Of his 36 home runs, 15 have been stroked in the seventh inning or later, tops among A.L. hitters.
Smoak, who entered the year never having hit more than 20 home runs (with Seattle back in 2013), has also established a career high in hits with 134, a total that eclipses his output of the past two seasons.
His 84 runs batted in also represents a career best, not to mention a .289 batting average that is tops on the Blue Jays, all of which helped earn him a trip to July's All-Star Game.
Smoak is also very capable defensively at first base, and should garner considerable Gold Glove support this season, in the opinion of his manager.
Being a switch hitter does not mean that Smoak has to work twice as hard at honing his craft.
Indeed, Smoak credits backing off some of his swing work as one of the reasons his production has picked up and his ability to lay off bad pitches has improved.
"I feel like earlier in my career it was more of, I did the same amount of work from both sides," he said. "By game time, I was often worn out.
"This season, I've tried to minimize that and I feel it's something that's really paid off for me."
Smoak naturally hits from the right side, where he is most comfortable. He said during the season, if the Blue Jays have a seven-day stretch between facing left-handed starters, he'll go the entire week without taking practice cuts from the right side.
And you cannot argue with the results.
Batting from the left side against right-handers this season, Smoak is hitting .264 with 29 home runs. Hitting from the right against left-handers, he has hit seven home runs with a hefty .385 batting average.
"It was like a light switch [going off], his pitch recognition at the plate," Gibbons said about Smoak's transformation this season. "It's been like night and day. I would just have to say he's a good hitter, from both sides of the plate, not just a slugger."
While the Blue Jays have been in last place in the A.L. East much of this year – Tuesday marked the 111th day of the season they've resided there – Smoak insists there has been no letdown among the players in the clubhouse.
"We feel we've gone on runs this year where we've been good and then we'd finish a good run with a bad one," Smoak said. "It's just one of those things where we just haven't kept that run going."