Andy Pages’ ‘will and determination’ at the plate lifts Dodgers past the Padres
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SAN DIEGO — Andy Pages’ game-winning plate appearance was one of the “greatest” teammate Freddie Freeman has seen in person. Manager Dave Roberts commended his “will and determination.” Even Padres closer Mason Miller, the pitcher on the other side, tipped his cap: “Outstanding job by him.”
The Dodgers’ 5-4 comeback victory was sealed with a nine-pitch battle between Pages and Miller. And the Dodgers’ young All-Star candidate beat the best closer in baseball.
“I never thought he was going to strike me out or dominate me,” Pages said through an interpreter. “I was 100% certain I was going to move the ball forward.”
Forward and in the air to right field for the go-ahead sacrifice fly in the ninth inning.
The Dodgers (30-19) evened the series, pulled back into the top spot in the division standings, and handed Miller his first loss as a Padre.
The back-and-forth game was everything a rivalry bout should be. There were home runs from stars on both sides, dueling chants from the fan bases, and a Cy Young candidate on the mound with a tie score.
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The Dodgers had learned the night before how important it was to avoid going into the late innings with a deficit against this Padres bullpen. And Freeman’s first swing of the night gave the Dodgers their first two runs of the series.
With Shohei Ohtani on base after a leadoff double, Freeman jumped on a center-cut fastball from Padres starter Griffin Canning and sent it the other way. The ball bounced off the hands of a fan in the front row of the left-field stands for a two-run homer, his first of two home runs Tuesday.
“Did a little swing change before the game,” Freeman said. “It’s more mechanical, swinging up, trying to get rid of the cut swing. And to see instant results was definitely nice.”
The Padres, however, quickly evened the score in the bottom of the first inning with a two-run homer from Manny Machado, then pulled ahead in the third with a two-run shot by Miguel Andujar.
Those two blasts accounted for all four runs given up by Dodgers starting pitcher Emmet Sheehan, whom Roberts lifted after four innings.
Sheehan didn’t watch the first home run, which Machado drove just beyond the center-field wall. But his eyes followed the second, roped to left by Andujar, as Sheehan adjusted his cap and smacked himself on the back of the head. Then he buried his fist in his glove.
“Not a ton of positives to take from it,” Sheehan said. “Personally just left my fastball down the middle way too much, not really competitive with two strikes either. Just not making very good pitches.”
But the Dodgers bullpen held fast the rest of the way, as five relievers combined for a scoreless performance capped by Will Klein’s first career save.
Their offense chipped away at the deficit in the fifth. Teoscar Hernández led off with a double, and then advanced to third and scored on a pair of ground outs to the right side of the infield.
The next inning started with Freeman. He worked a 2-2 count against Padres reliever Jeremiah Estrada. And then he golfed an inside splitter over the right-field wall to tie the score.
The tension in Petco Park steadily increased as each team tried and failed to pull ahead. Then as the game turned to the top of the ninth, darkness engulfed the field.
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Padres fans roared in response. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t a save situation: Miller was coming to the mound.
“He’s great, and no one’s gotten him,” Roberts said. “We feel good about our guys, and still, the game plan is to keep him out of the game.”
But Miller faltered. With one out, he walked Max Muncy, who secured ball four with an insistent ABS challenge. Pinch-runner Alex Call ran for Muncy.
Call took an early jump in an 0-1 count, and Miller turned, freezing him between first and second, with nowhere to go.
What was going through Call’s head?
“Oh, shoot,” he said.
But Miller’s throw got past first baseman Ty France, giving Call third base and Miller the first error of his career.
“He’s obviously really tough, so any extra 90 feet we’re willing to go for it,” Call said. “That’s kind of the mindset in that situation. You just kind of key on what we have and trust your eyes and then go for it. Kind of executed in that regard. He did something we didn’t expect, but it worked out. Thankfully.”
Then it was up to Pages.
He fouled off six pitches, ranging in velocity from a 101.9-mph fastball to an 87-mph slider, according to Statcast. When Pages laid off a slider in the dirt, Roberts felt the momentum shifting in his favor.
“I felt like he was gathering information on the fastball, saw the shape of the breaking ball,” Roberts said. “And then I felt like he had a good shot.”
Said Pages: “At the start of my at-bat it’s a little harder because he has a little bit more confidence, but hitting so many pitches foul, I think his confidence dropped a little, mine went up, and that’s how I gained the confidence to hit that fly ball.”
The ninth pitch of the at-bat clocked in at 101.5 mph, above the zone. Pages drove it to right field.
The play at the plate, after right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr.’s throw went through a relay, was close enough that the Padres challenged the call.
Call popped up, spreading his arms wide to motion that he thought he was safe. A replay review agreed.
“The little things win games,” Miller said. “They also lose games, too. We saw that tonight.”
Lauer activated
The Dodgers plan to slot left-hander Eric Lauer into the rotation next Tuesday against the Rockies at Dodger Stadium, Roberts said.
They added Lauer to the active roster before their game against the Padres on Tuesday, after acquiring him from the Blue Jays over the weekend. In a corresponding move, they optioned right-hander Wyatt Mills to triple-A Oklahoma City. Lauer may be available out of the bullpen Wednesday, Roberts said, if the team needs him to cover innings.
Blake Snell is back on the IL with loose bodies in his pitching elbow, but this really shouldn’t come as a surprise.
He’s already talked with Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior, who was the Padres’ minor-league pitching coordinator when Lauer started his pro career in their system, about changes he could make to return to the best version of himself.
“It’s a couple slight adjustments,” Lauer said. “It’s a little bit of a mental break, a change of scenery I think is good for everybody every once in a while. But there’s a few mechanical things that I definitely want to work on and that they’ve already kind of thrown out there as possibilities. There’s a few different things that we can try and mess around with, tinker a little bit. But hopefully it all works.”
Snell has surgery
Left-hander Blake Snell underwent the NanoNeedle Scope procedure Tuesday to remove the loose bodies in his left elbow.
“It went well,” Roberts said. “...The recovery is cut much shorter. I don’t have a timeline, I just know that it’s shorter than we initially anticipated.”
