Greg Smith had no idea the Columbus Clippers were riding a 10-game winning streak. Perhaps that was for the best.
“I guess it’s better to be naive sometimes,” he said.
The Major League veteran struck out seven and walked two.
“I’m pleased with it,” Smith said. “Everything was coming out good, my body felt good, my arm felt good. I think it was just a good night.”
Selected by the Diamondbacks in the sixth round of the 2005 Draft, Smith spent three years with Arizona before he was traded to Oakland in 2007 as part of the Dan Haren deal.
The Louisiana native went 7-16 with a 4.16 ERA over 190 1/3 innings for the A’s in 2008, then was packaged with Carlos Gonzalez to Colorado in the 2008 deal that sent Matt Holliday to Oakland.
Smith spent two seasons in the Rockies system, posting a 6.23 ERA over 39 innings with the big league club in 2010, but was released on April 4.
The 27-year-old left-hander latched on with Grand Prairie in the indepedent American Association before the Yankees came calling.
“A couple days ago, maybe a week ago, I got a text from my agent that said the Yankees called and were interested,” Smith said. “Two or three hours later, he said, ‘Yeah, they want to sign you.’ The next day, I was on plane up here.”
Smith issued walks in each of the first two innings Saturday but retired 13 straight batters between the second and sixth. The Clippers’ only hit was a two-out single to right field by Jason Kipnis in the sixth.
“The final pitch we were going [inside] — we had gone in once or twice to him before that,” Smith explained. “It was kind of inside over the corner. He did a good job pulling his hands in. We stayed away from him all night and thought we could jam him in. He did a great job pulling his hands in and got the barrel on it.”
Former first-round pick Andrew Brackman took over in the eighth and fanned three over two hitless innings.
Smith’s only previous appearance with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre came on Tuesday, when he tossed 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief in a 3-1 win over Syracuse.
“The relief appearance was just to get my feet wet, to get the plane ride off of me,” he said. “Get used to a hitter in box.”
With so much happening in the past week, Smith said he hasn’t had time to establish personal goals for the rest of the season.
“I haven’t really thought that far,” he added. “I’m a day-to-day guy. I came to the field today and was starting. Tomorrow when I get here, I’ll run and work out. We’ll go from there. Whatever the next day brings, we’ll do that.”
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