The Dodgers are in the NLCS for the third straight year. They beat the Braves 4-1 in Game 4 at Truist Park on Wednesday to close the Division Series out 3-1, and they got there by finally doing the one thing they had not done all series: getting a hit with somebody standing on second base.
Before the seventh inning Wednesday, Los Angeles was 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position in this series. Every run the Dodgers had scored came on a home run, seven of them producing 10 runs. Then Andy Pages, hitting ninth, lined a two-out, two-run single off Robert Suarez with the bases loaded to break a 1-1 tie.
That was the Dodgers’ only hit in 20 plate appearances with runners in scoring position in the entire series. One hit in four games. It ended Atlanta’s season.
Nobody in Baseball Had a Worse October Resume
Pages entered Game 4 as a career .123/.165/.210 postseason hitter. Before Game 3 he had 77 career playoff at-bats, a .104 average and a .343 OPS. Among 548 hitters with at least 80 career postseason plate appearances, his batting average, on-base percentage and OPS all ranked 547th.
He opened this postseason 0-for-7. Dave Roberts kept writing his name in the lineup anyway. “I’m going to continue to give Andy a leash. I believe in him,” Roberts said, adding that the Dodgers are going to need Pages to be “an active part of our team” if they want another title.
Pages went 2-for-4 in Game 3 and 2-for-3 in Game 4. Speaking in Spanish afterward he said, “I like being in those at-bats,” and, “I prepare to be in those spots.” Andrew Friedman’s version was shorter: “Some guys are afraid of the ball, some guys aren’t.”
This Series Was Tighter Than 3-1 Sounds
Tyler Glasnow started the clincher, walked five Braves, and did not give up a run. Tyler Mahle had carried Atlanta into the seventh on 85 pitches with one unearned run before Walt Weiss took the ball. Didier Fuentes then walked two of the three hitters he faced to load the bases. Suarez, in only his fifth appearance back from the elbow trouble that cost him three months, gave up the single to Pages. Max Muncy homered off Raisel Iglesias in the ninth and Edwin Diaz closed it.
Weiss gave the credit where it belonged. “You tip your cap to Pages, man,” he said, noting that Pages “hit a 100 mph heater back through the middle.” On the Dodgers in general: “They’re going for their 3rd straight championship for a reason, the arms keep coming at you.”
The arms are the real edge, and that is exactly why the Pages at-bat carried so much weight. This offense bludgeoned people for six months and then stopped being able to move a runner. The only hit Los Angeles got with a man in scoring position came from the guy batting ninth with the worst playoff track record in the sport.
Game 1 of the NLCS is Sunday in Milwaukee against the 103-win Brewers, the team the Dodgers swept in last year’s NLCS. Milwaukee’s bullpen does not hand out free outs the way Atlanta’s did on Wednesday. If Los Angeles hits .050 with runners on again, this one will not take seven games. Roberts just got proof that his read on Pages was right. He needs more than one hit out of it this round.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.