‘I gotta give it to Walker’: Smith makes sure Dodgers righty gets final out ball

After Will Smith caught the final out of the World Series, he only had one thing on his mind: get the ball to his pitcher.

“I gotta give it to Walker,” Smith said.

Buehler had just closed out the Dodgers’ World Series-clinching win in Game 5 at Yankee Stadium. He was the unlikely hero out of the bullpen — Buehler is normally a starting pitcher, who pitched Game 3 for Los Angeles and would have started Game 7 if the Series had reached it.

Instead, Buehler was the pitcher — and Smith the catcher — in a one-run game in the ninth inning on Wednesday. Buehler finished off the Yankees with a 1-2-3 inning, capped by a strikeout of Alex Verdugo on a beautiful knuckle-curve that Smith scooped out of the dirt to clinch the Dodgers’ World Series win.

So once the ball had been authenticated — Smith had a picture snapped with him holding it up — Smith gave it to Buehler. This was the second World Series championship for the two teammates, who were also part of the Dodgers team that won the 2020 World Series.