Braves fans can now laugh at Astros living through the Will Smith experience

Atlanta Braves fans can rejoice when Will Smith gives up a home run because it’s now a concern for the Houston Astros.

The Will Smith experience came to an end with the Atlanta Braves just before the trade deadline when they sent him to the Houston Astros for Jake Odorizzi. A pair of expendable players who have seen their better days pass by, Smith’s Astros gave Braves fans plenty of reason to feel even better about the trade.

In a 6-0 game against the Boston Red Sox, Dusty Baker decided to see what his club’s newest acquisition could do. Unfortunately, it was much of the same.

Former Braves pitcher Will Smith is not legend in Astros debut

The second batter Smith faced was Xander Bogaerts who broke up the shutout with a home run. It’s no reason to start sounding the alarm quite yet. However, with the trade deadline now in the past and no chance of acquiring any especially notable pieces for their run, the Astros are going to have to hope the Atlanta version of Smith can turn things around.

Smith wasn’t just having a rough 2022 season for the Braves. The 4.38 ERA in 37 innings of work was a huge step down from his strong 2021 season capped off by 11 scoreless innings in the postseason.

Back in 2020, Smith already showed signs of being less stellar than the reputation he had built. Although it was a sample size of just 16 innings, Smith did have a lackluster 4.50 ERA in the shortened campaign.

The Astros had a relatively quiet trade deadline considering what they plan to do. Aside from Smith, they also acquired catcher Christian Vazquez as well as first baseman Trey Mancini. The latter did go yard in this game, securing his first Astros dinger.

Braves fans may be seeing double right now. It was Smith who helped mow down the Astros in last year’s World Series with four scoreless innings. Now, with the early results of this trade already not looking so great for Houston, perhaps he ends up hurting the Astros in a whole new way.

It’s one outing. So far, not so good.

Braves fans will be hoping for something better when Odorizzi makes his debut for them later this week against the New York Mets.