John Smoltz is one of a few pitchers that had massive success as both a starter and a closer. The Hall of Famer made eight All-Star games in his career: five as a starter and three as a closer.
Smoltz started his career as one of the best starters in baseball for the Braves. He comprised one-third of Atlanta’s “Big Three” alongside Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine.
After dealing with injury issues that cost him the entirety of the 2000 season, Smoltz transitioned to the bullpen in 2001 to do whatever he could to help the Braves win. And help he did. Smoltz picked up 10 saves in 2001 and was Atlanta’s full-time closer in the next three years.
But then something changed for Smoltz and he decided to return to the starting rotation.
Smoltz joined former MLB All-Star Bret Boone on “The Bret Boone Podcast” and revealed the moment that he decided he wanted to stop closing and become a starting pitcher again.
“When you went to Seattle and I was in the ‘pen, that game that I faced you, Ichiro, and Edgar Martinez with the bases loaded,” Smoltz said (9:30 in player above). “People ask me about starting and closing and why did I go back to starting. It was that game that I decided mentally I was going back to starting. I was in a run as a closer. I was having success. But I was being used a ton.”
The game in Seattle that Smoltz was referencing occurred in 2003 after he pitched several days in a row.
After pitching on June 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th, Smoltz had two days off on the 9th and 10th. It was looking like he'd have a third straight off-day as the Braves held a big lead in the ninth inning.
“I hadn’t stretched. I hadn’t gotten ready. Nothing could prepare me to go into that game and Roberto Hernandez pulled a side muscle with two outs in the ninth up by [five] and Bobby called me in,” Smoltz recalled. “I’m like ‘What?’ I pointed to me twice, ‘Me?’ And he called me in, Brian McCann was catching. I was irate.
“I was like ‘Oh my Gosh, what am I going to do? I’m not ready.’ You get all the time you want to be ready when there’s an injured player but I called Brian McCann and I said ‘You put down finger number one until we lose the game or win the game. I am not getting hurt out here and I am just going to throw fastballs down the middle.’”
Smoltz got Eric Chavez to fly out on eight pitches so it wasn’t a huge workload for the closer, but every pitch counts in the midst of a long run.
“I’m still a little hot. I’m being used at a record rate only because we didn’t have guys in the pen that Bobby would trust,” he said. “So now we come to Seattle and I’m like ‘Alright, they got a great lineup,’ and I’m preparing for the game. I come in in the eighth inning, bases loaded, nobody out, in a three-run game. After pitching that game in Oakland, I walk on that mound – I’m being dead honest – I said ‘This is it. I am not doing this anymore. I am going to go back to what I love. I’m going to start.’ And I ended up giving up one run, I got out of it, got the save.”
That game was on June 14th, which was Smoltz’s eighth appearance in 12 days. He had thrown 84 pitches in seven games from the 3rd to the 12th of June.
Smoltz did in fact come in with the bases loaded and allowed just a sacrifice fly to Boone, the first batter he faced. He struck out Martinez and got John Olerud to ground out to end the threat before a rather stress-free ninth inning.
“I point to that game in Seattle where I had just flipped a switch and said ‘If I can go back to starting this is it,’” Smoltz said. “I loved and learned how to close but I loved to start.”
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