LOS ANGELES -- During his short Major League career, Dodgers catcher Will Smith has already built a reputation for being a clutch player. It’s the type of reputation that every player strives for, but only some accomplish.

His biggest swing, of course, came in last year’s postseason against, oddly enough, Braves reliever Will Smith. But the star backstop has had plenty of other big hits along the way.

His latest clutch performance came on Saturday in the Dodgers’ 5-2 win over the Rockies at Dodger Stadium. With the Dodgers desperately looking for their first hit with runners in scoring position of the night, Smith delivered a two-run single in the eighth inning to break the 2-2 tie. The Dodgers added an insurance run later that inning with an AJ Pollock RBI single.

• Box score

“Standard Will right now,” said Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen. “He gets big hits in big situations. It’s just a testament to how ready our guys are. Coming up and getting big hits when we need them, that was awesome.”

Smith is now 22-for-66 (.333) with 18 RBIs in plate appearances in the seventh inning or later with the Dodgers tied or ahead by one. He also improved to 16-for-38 (.421) with 13 RBIs in the eighth inning of games this season.

“I feel pretty confident in those situations. I’ve had a lot of success. I feel like I'm not afraid to fail in that moment,” Smith said. “[I’m] just able to stick to my approach -- swing at the right pitches and not expand out of the zone and take a good swing on the ball, and good things will happen.”

Smith has certainly had plenty of good things happen this year. He came into the season as one of the best-hitting catchers in baseball, but there were still questions as to whether or not he could sustain a high level of production for an entire 162-game season. Those questions have been answered with an emphatic “yes.”

The 26-year-old is leading all qualified catchers with a .887 OPS and has already set career highs in home runs (21), doubles (15) and RBIs (64).

“I just have the confidence that he’s going to stay in the strike zone,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “When the pitchers do make a mistake, he’s ready to fire and that’s what happened tonight and has happened many times in big spots with Will.”

While it was Smith that delivered the big hit, the Dodgers’ pitching staff continued to show why they’re among the best in the Majors. Just hours before the game, the Dodgers elected to go with Corey Knebel as the opener and bring David Price out of the bullpen.

Having Knebel face the top four right-handed hitters in the Rockies’ lineup was the goal, with Price following as the bulk guy. The decision paid off, as Knebel had a successful open and Price was good enough, allowing two runs over 3 2/3 innings of work.

After Price, the Dodgers’ bullpen flexed its muscles. Phil Bickford and Justin Bruihl tossed up more zeros. Treinen continued his spectacular season with a scoreless eighth and Kenley Jansen notched his 29th save of the season. Jansen also tied Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers for 14th all time with 341 career saves.

With the Giants beating the Braves on Saturday, the Dodgers badly needed a win to avoid falling to 3 1/2 games back in the National League West race. It didn’t look good early. But Smith, as he usually does, delivered in a big way.

“We’re confident in ourselves to come through this last month that we have going on,” Smith said of the NL West race. “We still have several games against them to make up for those couple games we’re behind. We know every game is going to matter and that’s going to help us in the postseason.”