{"id":652063,"date":"2026-03-30T07:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T07:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/652063\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T07:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T07:31:10","slug":"braves-dh-dominic-smith-hits-walk-off-grand-slam-weeks-after-the-death-of-his-mother-i-miss-her-dearly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/652063\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves DH Dominic Smith hits walk-off grand slam weeks after the death of his mother: ‘I miss her dearly’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dominic Smith started off with a bang in his debut with the Atlanta Braves. In the bottom of the ninth inning against the Kansas City Royals on Saturday, Smith hit a walk-off grand slam to give the Braves the 6-2 win and send Atlanta\u2019s Truist Park into a frenzy.<\/p>\n

But the grand slam also came with an added weight: Postgame, Smith revealed that the magical moment came just weeks after the death of his mother, Yvette LaFleur, who died on March 15 after a battle with cancer. The designated hitter said that he felt his mother\u2019s presence in the walk-off win.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI got choked up a bunch of times and I\u2019m trying to hold back tears right now. It\u2019s just so special,\u201d Smith said, via MLB.com<\/a>. \u201cI feel her every day. I miss her dearly. There\u2019s not a moment where I don\u2019t think about her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atlanta is Smith\u2019s sixth team in four seasons, with the veteran signing<\/a> a one-year split contract with the team earlier this month. After Saturday\u2019s win, Smith praised the team for their support over the past several weeks, as he had to leave preseason training camp for a little over a week to tend to his mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis team is just so awesome. I\u2019m so blessed because of the love they showed me. Every day I\u2019d come in they\u2019re asking about her, asking about her well-being, my well-being. That\u2019s all they really cared about. They didn\u2019t care about baseball,\u201d Smith said, via Gabe Burns<\/a> of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. \u201cJust them showing me that love \u2014 I know she\u2019d want me to be here. That\u2019s why I stuck it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ATLANTA,<\/p>\n

(Kevin D. Liles\/Atlanta Braves\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

(Kevin D. Liles\/Atlanta Braves via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Smith was showered with love \u2014 or, more specifically, with water, bubblegum and hugs \u2014 from his teammates after crossing home plate.<\/p>\n

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Smith, who signed a minor league deal with Atlanta in February, came into the designated hitter role in an unusual way. In early March, Braves DH Jurickson Profar was hit with a season-long suspension<\/a> after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs for the second time in the past year \u2014 leaving a hole in Atlanta\u2019s lineup.<\/p>\n

Just over two weeks later \u2014 six days after the death of his mother \u2014 Smith signed the split contract with the Braves, and eventually won a spot in Atlanta\u2019s lineup. Saturday was his first game with the team, with Drake Baldwin starting as DH in Kansas City\u2019s opening day roster.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey preach a family environment here,\u201d Smith said, via MLB.com. \u201cThat\u2019s what I feel from the group and the coaching staff. I\u2019m just so thankful for the opportunity to suit up for the Braves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dominic Smith started off with a bang in his debut with the Atlanta Braves. In the bottom of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,4166,5,192,18701,5931,813,2123,4,57061],"class_list":["post-652063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-atlanta-braves","tag-atlanta","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-atlantabraves","tag-baseball","tag-braves","tag-dominic-smith","tag-drake-baldwin","tag-jurickson-profar","tag-kansas-city","tag-mlb","tag-the-kansas-city-royals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116316963204457744","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}