Justin Smoak: Seattle Mariners 1B Earns AL Best of the Night Award

Justin Smoak used to be in the Texas Rangers organization. He found himself in Seattle via a 2010 trade that netted the Rangers Cliff Lee and Mark Lowe.

On Wednesday night, Smoak clearly felt like showing the Rangers that trading him was a mistake. 

Smoak, who is still only 25, enjoyed a career day against the Rangers in Arlington. The Mariners first baseman smacked two home runs and racked up six RBI—a new career high. He managed to stand out as an offensive hero on a night when the Mariners scored a grand total of 21 runs, which is impressive.

Both of Smoak's home runs were of the three-run variety. The first came in the top of the third off of Yoshinori Tateyama. Smoak jumped on a fastball on the inside corner and smacked it into the bullpens in right-center field. ESPN measured it at 405 feet.

His second blast was even more impressive. It came in the top of the eighth against Koji Uehara, and it was an absolute bomb to right field that landed in the upper deck. That one measured at 413 feet, though it looked like it traveled much farther than that.

If you happened to miss either homer, head over to MLB.com to check out the highlights (unless you're a Ranger fan, in which case I can't recommend reliving anything from last night).

The Mariners made a bit of history on Wednesday. Per a report from the Associated Press, they scored 21 runs for the first time since the year 2000, when they had greats like Alex Rodriguez and Edgar Martinez in their lineup. 

Smoak made a bit of history too, and I'll thank Major League Baseball for pointing it out on Twitter:

"

Justin Smoak is the first @Mariners first baseman to have a 2-homer, 6-RBI day since John Olerud on Aug. 2, 2003.

— MLB Stat of the Day (@MLBStatoftheDay) May 31, 2012"

So Smoak has that going for him, which is nice.

In all, Smoak collected three hits on the day in five trips to the plate, upping his batting average from .220 to .231. His slugging percentage jumped from .350 to .396.

ESPN writer David Schoenfield noticed that these numbers look awfully similar to the numbers of a certain future Hall of Famer:

"

Justin Smoak: .231/.278/.396. Albert Pujols: .240/.288/.407.

— David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield) May 31, 2012"

For the record, Smoak and Albert Pujols have the exact same WAR this season, according to FanGraphs.

Clearly, Smoak is going to end up having a better season than Prince Albert. For that matter, he'll probably end up in the Hall of Fame when all is said and done. Mark it down.

Okay, not really. But still, Smoak's monster night is at least worthy of an American League "Best of the Night" award. The man they call "The Freak from Goose Creek" did more than enough to earn it. He absolutely smoked the Rangers.

Sorry, had to say it.

If you ever want to nominate somebody for the American League "Best of the Night" award, hit me up on Twitter.