A few hours before first pitch on Saturday, the Dodgers’ plans at catcher shifted without warning. Will Smith, penciled in to hit sixth and handle Yoshinobu Yamamoto against the Angels, was scratched with a stiff neck. Manager Dave Roberts explained it had developed suddenly after consulting trainer Thomas Albert.

“It came out of nowhere,” Roberts said. “I had him in there today and then talked to [trainer] Thomas Albert and he said that Will’s kind of grinding through a neck situation. … I think a bad night’s sleep or a bad pillow. Not sure.”

The timing added another wrinkle to a season in which Smith has already dealt with physical setbacks and offensive adjustments. He missed time in late April with a back issue. In late May, Roberts gave him a reset during the Milwaukee series, starting him just once in three games because Smith had been “grinding” and working on his swing. Roberts wanted to give him space to stand down and refine his mechanics.

Smith pushed back at the time, insisting he was squaring up fastballs but driving them the other way. “Honestly, I feel like I’m hitting fastballs hard,” he said. “They’re just hard to right field. Especially line drives in the gap that are getting caught. Overall, I’ve been hitting the ball hard — just to right field. I’m not pulling it and we think that’s a mechanical issue. We’ll figure it out.”

Those adjustments still haven’t fully taken hold in June. Through the first four games of the month, Smith went just 2-for-13 with a .543 OPS. Roberts acknowledged earlier this season that he wasn’t sure how much of the wear and tear was accumulating on the three-time All-Star. “I don’t know,” Roberts said of the Milwaukee decision. “There was a little issue earlier in Milwaukee. I wanted to get him to stand down a little bit.”

Roberts noted Smith was always going to play just two of the three games in the series anyway. “He was going to play two out of three regardless,” Roberts said. “So it’s nice that we could kind of tap Dalton [Rushing] on the shoulder and get him in there.” Smith is expected back in the lineup for Sunday’s finale.

Dalton Rushing finished 0-for-3 with a walk and scored a run, but his real value showed in how he managed the game behind the plate. Yamamoto was dominant, scattering two hits over eight innings with no walks, striking out four and retiring 22 straight batters at one point en route to his sixth win and a 2.68 ERA.

Smith remains the clear No. 1 option when healthy — his experience, framing, and leadership behind the dish are well established. But the neck issue, however minor it appears, serves as another reminder of how quickly the physical demands of catching can pile up. The fact that Los Angeles could absorb the absence, lean on Rushing, and still deliver a statement win speaks to the roster’s construction.