Andy Pages Erases October Ghosts As Dodgers Finish Off Braves, Advance To NLCS

In a world full of “What Have You Done For Me Lately?” demands, Andy Pages has removed that particular tagline from his résumé. With the bases loaded, two outs and a full count in the top of the seventh inning Wednesday night, Pages lined a 99 mph four-seam fastball from Atlanta reliever Robert Suarez up the middle, scoring Teoscar Hernández and Tommy Edman and giving the Dodgers a 3-1 lead they would not surrender. Los Angeles held on for a 4-1 victory over the Braves, taking the National League Division Series 3-1 and advancing to the NLCS for the third consecutive season.

For Pages, the swing represented considerably more than two runs. He had absorbed more than his share of criticism after last year's postseason, when he went 4-for-51 (.078) and eventually lost his starting job in the outfield during the Dodgers' run to the World Series. After opening this series 0-for-8, the first whispers were already beginning to surface around Los Angeles that October might once again be getting the better of him. Instead, Pages responded with four hits in his final seven at-bats of the series, culminating with the kind of swing that can change how an entire postseason is remembered.

“I've been preparing myself all series for a moment like that, give myself an opportunity, get a good pitch to hit,” Pages said. “And luckily I was able to put a good swing on a pitch.”

The game itself hardly resembled a playoff game in its opening stages. Tyler Glasnow surrendered a leadoff single to Michael Harris II on the first pitch he threw, watched Harris steal second and eventually saw him score from third when a wild pitch bounced off Will Smith's chest protector. The Braves had a 1-0 lead before the Dodgers had really settled into the evening.

Atlanta then proceeded to give it away.

Shohei Ohtani walked to open the second inning, stole second and advanced to third when Sean Murphy's throw sailed into center field. Max Muncy followed with what appeared to be an innocuous pop fly into shallow left field, but shortstop Mauricio Dubón got underneath it and dropped it. Ohtani scored, tying the game, and Atlanta had somehow committed two errors in the same inning. The Murphy throwing error was bad enough; dropping Muncy's pop-up was the kind of mistake that simply cannot happen in October. Not in the Major Leagues, not in Little League and not even in some slow-pitch softball beer league where half the players are already thinking about the postgame cooler.

From there, the game settled into the sort of tense pitching duel that had been expected all along. Tyler Glasnow was making his first start since Sept. 24 and the one hit he allowed was hardly his problem. The five walks were. He repeatedly found himself working from behind and eventually departed with two outs in the fifth after issuing consecutive walks. Alex Vesia came in and ended the threat when Matt Olson rolled a grounder to second.

It was a night in which Atlanta repeatedly received opportunities without being able to cash them in. The Braves drew 18 walks over the four games of the series and none of those runners scored. They finished 1-for-23 with runners in scoring position, an astonishing number for a team that had enough opportunities to make the Dodgers pay.

“The Dodgers had something to do with that,” Atlanta manager Walt Weiss said. “They're going for their third straight world championship for a reason. Their arms just keep coming at you. But that's the postseason. You never know what you're going to get. It's very unpredictable.”

The Dodgers' pitching certainly made Atlanta pay for its inability to finish. Glasnow and four relievers combined to allow only three hits. Edgardo Henriquez entered in the seventh and brought the sort of triple-digit velocity that can make everybody watching the bullpen suddenly pay closer attention, but he stranded a runner at second. Tanner Scott followed with a perfect eighth, striking out two and dispatching Atlanta without allowing the Braves to get anything started.

Still, entering the ninth, Atlanta had one last legitimate opportunity. The Braves were down only 3-1, meaning two runs would tie the game and send the series into another chapter. Then Max Muncy stepped in against Raisel Iglesias and changed the mathematics.

Muncy took a 96 mph heater and turned it into something resembling a guided weapon. The ball left his bat at 104.3 mph with a 29-degree launch angle and traveled 397 feet. According to Statcast, it took just over four seconds to reach its final destination, giving the occupants of Atlanta's premium seating section roughly enough time to recognize that the ball was headed their way, briefly consider the possibility of catching it and then discover that the tables in front of them apparently had a secondary purpose.

The photograph of the moment tells the story better than words. One fan appears to make a legitimate attempt at recovering the Muncy missile while virtually everyone around him is either ducking, turning away or pulling back. Several seats are empty. Perhaps those fans had already begun their exit strategy in the top of the ninth with their team down by only two runs in a championship-series elimination game. Perhaps they had simply discovered that those fancy tables were capable of doubling as elementary-school earthquake-drill shelters. Either explanation leaves something to be desired.

Muncy's blast, his 19th postseason home run as a Dodger and another franchise record, provided the insurance run the Dodgers desperately wanted and, more importantly, gave the man coming into the game in the bottom of the ninth a little more room to work.

Yes, that man was Edwin Díaz.

Thee Dodgers closer.

After a regular season spent recovering from elbow surgery and a neck injury, Díaz has spent the postseason quietly rebuilding the reputation that made him one of the game's most feared closers. He had already recorded a save the previous night, and with the Dodgers holding a three-run advantage, Dave Roberts sent him back out to finish the series.

Díaz needed only three outs.

He got them quickly, putting the final stamp on a series the Dodgers had taken by winning consecutive games in Atlanta.

“That's the reason why we got him,” Roberts said. “The last two nights, that's the reason why we acquired a guy like Edwin Diaz. He's one of the great closers in the game. For him to be pitching his best right now, that's what you hope for, and I give him a lot of credit.”

Díaz acknowledged that the road back had been a long one.

“I feel great,” he said. “I'm happy what I'm doing right now. I put in a lot of work this season. ... Those things paid off at the end of the day. Last week and a half of the season, I did my job.”

For the Dodgers, the job is far from finished. But after the way this season began to unravel during the summer, getting back to this point carries its own significance.

Remember August, when plenty of people outside Los Angeles seemed perfectly happy to begin composing the Dodgers' postseason obituary? Those people may want to put the pen down.

They're baaacck.

And this time, the Dodgers didn't need a barrage of home runs to get there.

They won Game 4 with pitching, opportunistic offense, an Atlanta error in the second inning, a bases-loaded swing from a young outfielder who had plenty to prove, and finally a Muncy missile that turned a two-run game into a three-run game before Díaz slammed the door.

Glasnow's five walks were troublesome, but Atlanta could not capitalize. The Braves received free baserunners throughout the series but couldn't bring them home. Teoscar Hernández crashed into the left-field wall chasing Ozzie Albies' drive and somehow remained in the game. Kyle Tucker made another difficult defensive play look routine. Henriquez threw triple-digit heat. Scott shut down the eighth. Pages delivered the pivotal hit. Muncy supplied the insurance.

And then Díaz finished it.

“I've been preparing myself all series for a moment like that,” Pages said.

He got his moment.

After last year's postseason disappearance, it was hard to imagine a more appropriate way for Pages to begin changing the conversation than with two outs, the bases loaded and the entire season sitting on one pitch.

He didn't miss it.

The Dodgers will now head to Milwaukee for Sunday's opening game of the NLCS, eight victories away from becoming the first National League team to win three consecutive World Series.

“We understand the job's not done,” Roberts said. “We have eight more wins. Stay focused.”

The Dodgers will worry about those eight wins beginning Sunday.

For one night, they can enjoy the fact that Atlanta's season is over, the tomahawk chop has been silenced, the premium-seat bunker occupants can emerge from behind their nacho-cheese tables, and Andy Pages has finally answered the only question October was asking him.

What have you done for me lately?

Quite a bit.