TORONTO — Andy Pages finished the regular season in a 4-for-32 slump.
It has only gotten worse.
The young outfielder was hitless in four at-bats in Game 1 of the World Series and struck out twice – including one in a bases-loaded situation when he chased a full-count slider out of the strike zone. That left Pages 3 for 39 (.077) in the postseason without a single walk in 43 plate appearances (though he has been hit by a pitch twice).
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts dropped Pages to ninth in the lineup during the National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies (after Will Smith returned from his hand injury) and acknowledged benching Pages were “very fair” to consider.
“He has struggled this postseason,” Roberts said. “What I need from him is to have quality at-bats, to be able to get on base, to win 3-2 pitches. He’s playing very sound defense, which is a big part of why he’s in there.
“Being in the nine hole, I’m not expecting him to carry the offense, but still be a contributor. I have contemplated other decisions. I’m keeping a close eye on it. But yeah, I mean, I still need to see some kind of uptick in consistency of performance. So when and if I decide to change – I haven’t decided that, but I’m being mindful.”
Roberts’ options for replacing Pages are limited. Tommy Edman made 19 starts in center field during the regular season (second to Pages’ 117), but his recurring ankle problem has taken that “off the table because of potential injury risk.”
Edman acknowledged that he will “evaluate” with the medical staff when the season is over whether surgery might be needed on the ankle.
“For now, I think just playing the rest of the games of the World Series will be totally fine,” Edman said Saturday. “It’s actually improved a good amount throughout the postseason. It feels like it’s in a really good spot now. But, yeah, that’s something we’ll talk about in the offseason.”
Roberts’ other option would appear to be Kiké Hernandez or Alex Call. But neither has played much center field recently – Hernandez started three games there this season, Call started just two games in center field each of the past two seasons for the Washington Nationals.
“Andy’s been plus in center field. When you’re in the middle of the diamond, the defense certainly matters,” Roberts said.
During the Dodgers’ workouts last week, Roberts spent some time talking with Pages, trying to reassure the 24-year-old of his faith in him and “to keep him in a good head space.”
“With young players, confidence is something that you’ve always got to – you got to keep an eye on, and it can go awry pretty quickly if they’re not having success,” Roberts said.
SECOND CHANTS
It was no surprise when the Rogers Centre fans booed Shohei Ohtani during pregame introductions for Game 1. The Toronto Blue Jays’ fans have felt jilted since false reports had Ohtani signing with them as a free agent in December 2023 the day before he ultimately announced he was joining the Dodgers.
But fans at Game 1 doubled down. With the home team leading 11-4 and Ohtani batting with two outs in the ninth inning, chants of “We don’t need you” started up and continued for awhile.
“I don’t think he understood the chants,” Roberts said, explaining that Ohtani was batting at the time and “I don’t think his focus was on a chant.”
The boos were not unexpected. When the Dodgers visited during the 2024 season, Ohtani was booed then as well.
“As far as being booed, I think that he understands why he was booed,” Roberts said. “I don’t think he minds it. I don’t think it necessarily fuels his fire. I’ve used this word with Shohei a lot. He’s just a really good compartmentalizer, so I don’t think it really affects him, and he’s just there to just do his job.”
ROUGH REPEAT
The Dodgers are trying to become the first team to win back-to-back championships since the New York Yankees won three in a row from 1998-2000. Before that, the last team to repeat was the Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993. One of the stars of those teams, Joe Carter, threw out the first pitch before Game 2 on Saturday and was asked why he thinks repeating has become so rare in baseball.
“The reason why it’s tough to repeat is because sometimes you become complacent when you reach the pinnacle and you reach the top, and then the next year there’s kind of a letdown because all of a sudden you’ve achieved what you wanted to achieve to win a World Series,” Carter said. “What we did that was different from ’92 to ’93 is that we had, I think, 12 or 13 new players, and so it was a different team. And Paul Molitor was on that team. So it was us saying, okay, Molitor has not won a ring, future Hall of Famer, and so that was our drive.
“And the fact that you were defending champions, everybody knows that and every team comes and they have their A game, and it’s very hard to be up for 162 ballgames because every team is coming at you.”
PITCHING MATCHUPS
Roberts confirmed that, as expected, Tyler Glasnow will start Game 3 on Monday at Dodger Stadium with Ohtani starting Game 4 on Tuesday.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider announced that veteran Max Scherzer will start Game 3 and Shane Bieber will take Game 4.
UP NEXT
Game 3 – Blue Jays (RHP Max Scherzer, 1-0, 3.18 ERA this postseason) at Dodgers (RHP Tyler Glasnow, 0-0, 0.68 ERA this postseason), Monday, 5 p.m., FOX (Ch. 11), 570 AM