LOS ANGELES — Could shaking things up at the bottom of the order help get the Dodgers’ lineup back on track? While Andy Pages is not the only hitter scuffling, his performance at the plate of late has manager Dave Roberts contemplating a change.
Pages is hitting just 4-for-43 (.093) with a .249 OPS during the Dodgers’ postseason run, with one of the hits coming in Saturday’s Game 2 win over the Blue Jays that ensured the World Series would be tied at a game apiece before shifting to Dodger Stadium.
Hours before Pages connected for his first World Series knock — a single that set the table for the Dodgers tacking on a pair of insurance runs — Roberts was upfront about his starting center fielder needing to show some consistency in order to keep his role.
“What I need from him is to have quality at-bats, to be able to get on base, to win 3-2 pitches,” Roberts said Saturday. “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.”
On Sunday’s workout day at Dodger Stadium, Roberts reiterated that sitting Pages remains on the table. But there would likely be a defensive trade-off if Roberts were to pencil in someone else in center field.
Pages was worth 11 outs above average during the regular season, which ranked in the 97th percentile among qualified Major Leaguers, and he gave opposing teams plenty of reasons to be wary about testing his throwing arm.
In an ideal world, Tommy Edman would slide over to center, but his nagging right ankle has limited him to playing the infield. That has tied Roberts’ hands somewhat.
The Dodgers’ other potential options to start games in center — Alex Call and Kiké Hernández — have not seen much time there this year. Hernández played 38 innings in center, while Call played 27 innings there (and only one since being traded to the Dodgers). If Pages were to sit, Hernández might be more likely to take over in center, opening up left field for Call.
“When you’re in the middle of the diamond, the defense certainly matters. But so does the offense,” Roberts said. “So I think for me, it’s trying to weigh it all and sum it up, but it’s not Andy’s sole responsibility as far as the offensive inconsistencies.”
If there seems to be a sense of déjà vu about this situation, that’s because there is. Pages slumped badly for the first two weeks of the regular season, hitting .137 in his first 16 games before turning things around. By the end of the first half, he was a bona fide All-Star candidate, although he did not make the Midsummer Classic amid a deep group of NL outfielders.
The biggest difference between now and April may be that Pages has at most five games to figure things out, rather than the entire regular season ahead of him.
Hernández has already been a fixture in the starting lineup this postseason, taking over left field and hitting .273. Call has reached in six of his seven plate appearances, although he’s only taken one at-bat since the NLDS.
The sample size is small, but there could be some sense in starting Call over Pages if the former is able to get on base to turn over the order. Pages has yet to draw a walk in 47 postseason plate appearances.
But as Roberts said, the nine-hole is not the only problematic spot for the Dodgers. The top three of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman have combined to hit .198 with a .716 OPS since the beginning of the NLDS.
The offense has taken a team-wide dip in that span, averaging 3.7 runs per game. It hasn’t been as pressing because of how the starting pitching has dominated, but a Dodgers team that has gone an impressive 10-2 this postseason still has yet to click on all cylinders.
Call’s on-base ability could raise the floor for the Dodgers as they seek three more wins to secure back-to-back championships. But if Pages could get back to being a potent bat, that would considerably lengthen the lineup and arguably raise the team’s ceiling.
“I think we’re doing a good job of getting there, but we got to do a better job of finishing,” Roberts said of the offense, “which I think that we’re certainly capable of doing that.”
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