SAN FRANCISCO – After notching his first win of the season in a tight 2-1 contest against the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers, Giants closer Will Smith spent some time with Mark Willard to talk about how close he feels this 2019 Giants bullpen has gotten, and even shared his surprising carpool buddy.
It’s the little things in life that keep us humble, and for Smith, that means carpooling with reliever Mark Melancon.
“Mark (Melancon) and I… we’re carpool buddies,” Smith said. “We’ve had good talks on the way home, talking about the team and talking about the guys. They’ve been nice car rides home.”
Smith carpooling with Melancon back and forth from games is emblematic of the entire vibe the bullpen has with each other. He says this is one of the closest-knit groups he’s been a part of.
“Mark and I were actually talking about that last night on the way home,” Smith said. “This is probably the closest bullpen we’ve both been on throughout our years. For some reason, we just get along so well. We genuinely care for each other. We know about each others’ families… I don’t know how to describe it, but we get along so well.”
Smith thinks that maybe it has to do with the fact that they all have each other’s back on the field.
“We take the mentality of hand it to the next guy,” Smith said. “We all consider ourselves closers down there, you’re just the closer of the sixth, seventh, and eighth, and some guy just happens to throw the last inning… It’s just that mentality of do your job, hand it to the next guy, and hopefully everything works out in the end.”
