John Smoltz’s reputation for being at his best in the playoffs was already beyond reproach before the 2016 postseason.

In a Hall of Fame career — 20 of his 21 major league seasons were spent with the Braves — he established himself as one of the greatest postseason pitchers, going 15-4 with a 2.67 ERA in 41 playoff appearances.

Twenty-five years ago, he was the tough-luck loser in a 1-0, 10-inning loss to the Twins in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series, a classic that was joined on the short list of the best ballgames ever by the Cubs’ 8-7, 10-inning win over the Indians in Wednesday night’s Game 7.

But I’m not sure Smoltz ever had a better postseason performance than the one he delivered in a different role Wednesday night.

With apologies to the Cubs’ Javier Baez or the Indians’ Francisco Lindor, the breakout star of the playoffs was Smoltz, who just completed his first season as the analyst alongside Joe Buck on Fox Sports’ No. 1 baseball broadcast team. Smoltz was no broadcast rookie — he began preparing for this career with some regional work on Braves telecasts even before his fleeting 2009 stint with the Red Sox — but it was the 49-year-old’s first in such a high-profile assignment.

This couch-dweller’s scouting assessment? He was, in a word, exceptional. Along with Buck — who has his late father Jack’s flair for nailing the big moment and who long ago swapped in his perceived smugness for appealing self-deprecation — he achieved what so few broadcast teams in any sport have achieved. He — they — actually enhanced the experience of watching the game.

Smoltz makes his incisive observances seem almost casual, and so his opinions are never obtrusive. But his greatest talent — and perhaps this is related to his reservoir of personal experiences in the postseason — is his ability to identify a pivotal moment before it becomes a pivotal moment.

I first really took notice of this during Game 5 of the World Series. The Cubs, trailing the series, 3-1, were down in the fourth inning, 1-0, with the heart of their order due up. With the urgency of the situation conveyed his tone, Smoltz began explaining that it was imperative that the Cubs’ offense come to life in that particular inning before their outs began to dwindle. Kris Bryant homered almost immediately thereafter, the Cubs scored three runs in the inning en route to a 3-2 win, and you almost wondered if the Chicago hitters had somehow heard Smoltz’s words. The timing of all of it was perfect.

He was even more on-point Wednesday. Questioning Cubs manager Joe Maddon’s decision to pull effective starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks with two out in the fifth inning, Smoltz said: “This may very well work out, but I have a general rule for me: Never make a move that makes the other team happy.’’

But it was Smoltz’s foresight during one of the pivotal moments in the game that almost made you wonder whether he had somehow acquired a script telling him how the game would play out.

With two outs and the Cubs leading, 6-4, in the eighth inning, an Indians runner on base, and Rajai Davis at the plate, Smoltz was quick to identify the one spot where Davis might be able to turn on a pitch from hard-throwing Cubs closer Aroldis Chapman.

“That’s where he prefers it,’’ said Smoltz as Davis fouled off a 2-2 pitch down and in. “He wants the inner half of the ball so he has a chance of getting the barrel to it. Away, not a whole lot he can do with it. Up, same result.

“Sometimes you’ve got to get lucky against a guy like Chapman. You gotta guess in an area, hope he throws it there.’’

Two pitches later, Davis turned on a down-and-in fastball, and Buck made the incredulous call: “Liner to left! At the wall . . . tie game! . . . Rajai Davis, 6-6!’’

After a 29-second pause — for such a habitually loud network, Fox Sports uses silence in its live broadcasts beautifully — Smoltz got to have something of a home-run trot of his own:

“I said down and in was his only chance,’’ he said, as the replay of Davis’s swing filled the screen. “Look where this pitch is. Down and in. He got it, he didn’t miss it, he fouled off the pitches he had to foul off, and the one area where he had a chance to hit a home run is where Chapman threw it. And, oh my.’’

Oh my, indeed. Fox Sports deserves much credit for getting so much right with its postseason broadcasts this year. There is something organically good about its studio team of Kevin Burkhardt, Alex Rodriguez, Pete Rose, and Frank Thomas. It’s almost as if this dream matchup between two tortured fan bases and the requisite massive ratings (more on those in a second) were a karmic gift for putting together a richly appealing broadcast, save for the relentless commercials for Skip Bayless’s new shriekfest.

Baseball fans probably require no reminder that Smoltz replaced Harold Reynolds in that No. 1 chair this year. Reynolds was pleasant enough amid his non sequiturs and bewildering observations, but you could show him a full replay of Game 6 of the 1975 World Series and he wouldn’t be as sharp in his post-viewing observations about that game (“Fisk should just try to punch one to right field here, Joe’’) than Smoltz was in real time Wednesday night. What a trade.

So about those ratings: Game 7 averaged 40 million viewers on Fox. Coincidentally, it is the most-viewed baseball game since the aforementioned Game 7 in 1991, which drew 50.3 million viewers on CBS. Wednesday’s game had a 25.2 rating and a 40 share nationally, the highest-rated baseball game since Game 7 between the Yankees and Diamondbacks in 2001 (27 rating). Overall, the World Series had a 14.9 rating and a 25 share, making it the highest-rated World Series since 2004, when the Red Sox swept the Cardinals.

Chad Finn can be reached at finn@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeChadFinn.