- Commissioner’s statement on Ventura, Marte
- Ronnie O’Sullivan: Masters champion ‘felt so vulnerable’ in final
- Arron Fletcher Wins 2017 WSOP International Circuit Marrakech Main Event ($140,224)
- Smith challenges Warner to go big in India
- Moncada No. 1 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Braves land 2 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Kingery makes MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- New Zealand wrap up 2-0 after Bangladesh implosion
- Mathews, Pradeep, Gunathilaka to return to Sri Lanka
- Elliott hopes for rain for Poli
Better than Jake Arrieta, Corey Kluber? Coach calls Carson Smith ‘a monster’
- Updated: May 4, 2016
12:17 PM ET
Derek Matlock knew as soon as he saw it.
Matlock was coaching at Texas State University in 2009 when a few players talked him into driving to west Texas to watch the bullpen session of a pitcher who had been cut from his junior college team. At first, there wasn’t anything striking about the tall, skinny right-hander with hideous numbers at Grayson County College and a reputation for not being receptive to coaching.
That’s when Carson Smith said the words that changed his career.
“He goes, ‘Coach, let me throw one from three-quarters,'” Matlock, now the pitching coach at West Virginia, recalled in a recent phone interview. “I was like, ‘All right,’ so he did. And after seeing one from three-quarters, I was like, ‘Oh baby, this guy’s gonna be a dude.’ I was pretty fired up.”
If Matlock hadn’t seen Smith, another Division I pitching coach probably would have. Then again, Smith went undrafted out of high school and only had offers from other junior colleges.
And considering Smith’s indirect route to the big leagues, there was something fitting about the winding path to his first appearance for the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night.
After missing the first month of the season because of a flexor mass strain in his right forearm, Smith was activated from the disabled list and tossed an easy, breezy nine-pitch seventh inning in a 4-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox. He got Jerry Sands and Dioner Navarro to ground out, then struck out Austin Jackson on a nasty slider.
“It’s great to be back,” Smith said, as the Red Sox and White Sox continue their three-game series on ESPN’s “Wednesday Night Baseball.” “I’ve wanted to be here for the last month. Just to go out there and get one out of the way, it was good.”
With his unique arm angle and strikeout ability, Smith figures to boost a bullpen that appears to be one of the Red Sox’s strengths. Acquired in a December trade that sent lefty Wade Miley to the Seattle Mariners, the 26-year-old gives manager …
continue reading in source espn.go.com
