Braves fans are now laughing 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 problem for the Houston Astros.

The Will Smith experience ended with the Atlanta Braves just before the close when they sent him to the Houston Astros for Jake Odorizzi. Smiths Astros, a pair of expendable players who have seen their better days pass, gave Braves fans plenty of reasons 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 latest acquisition could do. Unfortunately, many things were similar.

Former Braves pitcher Will Smith is no legend in the Astros debut

The second batter Smith faced was Xander Bogaerts, who ended the shutout with a home run. It’s no reason to sound the alarm just yet. With the trade deadline now in the past and no chance of acquiring particularly notable pieces for their run, the Astros have to hope the Atlanta version of Smith can turn things around.

Smith didn’t just have a tough 2022 season for the Braves. The 4.38 ERA in 37 working innings was a major step backwards from his strong 2021 season, which was capped by 11 scoreless innings in the postseason.

Back in 2020, Smith was showing signs that he was less than the reputation he had built for himself. Despite being a sample size of just 16 innings, Smith had a lackluster 4.50 ERA in the abridged campaign.

The Astros have had a relatively quiet trading period considering what they are up to. In addition to Smith, they also took on catcher Christian Vazquez and first baseman Trey Mancini. The latter took to the court that game and secured his first Astros thingy.

Braves fans may be seeing double at the moment. It was Smith who helped mow down the Astros in last year’s World Series with four scoreless innings. Now that the early results of this trade are already not looking so good for Houston, it may hurt the Astros in a whole new way.

It’s an excursion. Not so good so far.

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