ATLANTA — Overmatched last postseason and benched during the World Series, Andy Pages used the embarrassment to fuel an All-Star season in 2026.
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But he was hit by a pitch on Aug. 21 that broke a bone in his hand, didn’t return until the final six games of the regular season and started the postseason, trying to do too much (by his manager’s estimation) to make up for last fall’s lack of contributions.
The accounts have been reconciled. It was Pages’ clutch two-out, two-run single in the seventh inning that broke a tie and lifted the Dodgers to a 4-1 victory on Wednesday night in Game 4 of their National League Division Series with the Atlanta Braves.
The victory sends the Dodgers to the NL Championship Series against either the Milwaukee Brewers or San Diego Padres. The Dodgers have reached baseball’s Final Four for the fifth time in the past seven years and the eighth time in the past 11. Their quest for a ‘three-peat’ will continue Sunday either in Milwaukee or at home against the Padres.
This series was decided by the Dodgers’ first and only hit with a runner in scoring position in the four games.
“No, it was not (part of the plan). But the one was big,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said, shivering under the dousing of chilled beer and champagne in the post-game clubhouse. “I think it speaks to the vast number of ways we can win a baseball game. But certainly, for quality of life, (I) would like us to cash in a few more of those opportunities in the next round.”
A veteran of these celebrations, third baseman Max Muncy, said statistics – like 1 for 16 with RISP – are meaningless in October as long as they add up to a win.
“It doesn’t matter how you win. You just win,” Muncy said. “No one cares about their personal stats. The end result, the ‘W’ at the end is the most important part and that’s what everyone is focused on. Obviously you’d like to have more hits with runners in scoring position but it’s the postseason. It’s hard to do that. It’s really hard to string together a few hits in a row.
“But we were able to do it tonight – once. And that’s really all that matters.”
With the score tied 1-1, Teoscar Hernandez – fresh off a collision with the left field wall that left him on the warning track dirt, rubbing the left side of his head – singled with one out against Braves starting pitcher Tyler Mahle. It was just the third hit off Mahle and it came on just his 85th pitch. But Braves manager Walt Weiss went to his bullpen, bringing in Game 2 hero Didier Fuentes to face Muncy.
Fuentes got Muncy to ground out, Hernandez moving to second, but he walked pinch-hitter Josue De Paula and Kyle Tucker to load the bases with two outs.
Weiss had a quick hook, pulling Fuentes and handing the ball to veteran Robert Suarez to face Pages.
“Didi didn’t look quite the same; the ball wasn’t coming out quite the same,” Weiss said of Fuentes. “So I made a quick move there to Suarez.
“You tip your cap to Pages, man. He hit a 100-mile-an-hour heater back through the middle.”
Pages got ahead in the count, 3-and-1, then swung and missed at a 99.1 mph fastball from Suarez. He got another fastball on the full count and didn’t miss, stroking it through the middle to drive in two runs and put the Dodgers in the lead.
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“Incredibly happy for him,” Hernandez said of Pages, his sidekick in the real “Big Bro-Little Bro” pairing in the Dodgers’ clubhouse. “Especially after seeing all the people saying he’s not going to hit in the postseason, that he was one of the worst postseason hitters in the league. I think after today that opinion is going to change.
“He missed a month. At the end of the season, he got a couple hits, a couple big hits, a couple homers. But we know it takes time to get consistent, getting good at-bats, getting good contact. I think his timing is coming back and he showed that the past two days.”
What Pages didn’t show postgame was how much last October had lived in him.
“For me, what happened last year, happened. It’s in the past now,” he said in Spanish. “All I can do now is be in the moment, and being in the moment today, I was able to get the result.”
Friedman praised the 25-year-old Pages as “a guy that keeps getting better,” having turned himself into an outstanding defensive outfielder and emerging from last October with his breakout season.
“That says a lot about someone,” Friedman said. “And so for him to have the struggles he had last October, and for him to emerge out of it the way he has so far, I can’t say enough about him and how important he is to this team.”
It was a struggle to score any runs in Atlanta. After Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Chris Sale squared off in Game 3, Mahle and Tyler Glasnow allowed just a dirty run each through the first six innings.
In the bottom of the first, Michael Harris II led off with a single off of Glasnow. He stole second base, went to third on a ground out and score when Glasnow spiked a knuckle curve in the dirt well in front of home plate. It bounced off of catcher Will Smith’s chest protector back toward the mound and Glasnow couldn’t retrieve it in time to get Harris.
In the top of the second, Shohei Ohtani took a five-pitch walk, stole second and went to third when Braves catcher Sean Murphy threw the ball into center field. Ohtani scored when Braves shortstop Mauricio Dubón dropped Muncy’s pop-up in shallow left field.
Glasnow didn’t give up another hit after that leadoff single to Harris in the first inning. He did walk five, though, including two in the fifth inning that prompted Manager Dave Roberts to pull him from the game after 78 pitches.
Dodgers pitchers somehow walked 18 batters in the series but let none of them score. Alex Vesia retired Matt Olson to end that fifth inning. Edgardo Henriquez held the Braves scoreless over the next two. Tanner Scott retired the slumping heart of the Braves’ order and Muncy gave Edwin Diaz cushion in the ninth inning with a solo home run (his 19th career postseason homer, a franchise record).
“I just feel like everybody out there in the baseball world thinks that it’s gonna be easy for us just because of the team that we have, and it’s never gonna be easy to win baseball games. Especially in October, when everybody’s throwing their best at you,” said infielder Miguel Rojas, who was held out of the game with a back injury. “So we feel really proud and feel like the expectations are there, and those are the things that weigh the most on our shoulders, to be honest. And all we have to do is play clean baseball, like we’ve been doing.”
As the Dodgers’ celebration wound down, Game 4 of the NLDS between the Brewers and Padres was just about to begin. Friedman was asked what outcome he was rooting for in that series.
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“I just want chaos,” he said.