Bochy on Will Smith: ‘He’s knocking on the door’

ANAHEIM — More good news came regarding Will Smith before Saturday night’s meeting between the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Angels. Bruce Bochy was encouraged by Smith’s one inning of work at Triple-A Sacramento on Friday, where he threw 13 pitches and recorded two strikeouts.

Will Smith threw 13 pitches last night, according to Bochy “he’s knocking on the door.” #SFGiants pic.twitter.com/v3EQkUTzAB

— Keaton A. Moore (@KeatonAMoore) April 21, 2018

“He had a good outing,” Bruce Bochy said. “I think he threw 13 pitches last night. The velocity is there. The command is there. We just have to have him go back-to-back and then at some point see if he can even throw innings.

“He’s knocking on the door right now.”

Although Smith is making significant progress, Bochy doesn’t expect him to return any earlier than May 1, his original return date. That gives him another nine days to increase his pitch-count and throw multiple innings on back-to-back days.

Smith missed all of 2017 when he opted to undergo Tommy John surgery towards the end of last year’s spring training. Before that, he’d only appeared in 26 games for the Giants, where he posted a 2.95 ERA in 18.1 innings of work, after being traded from the Milwaukee Brewers.