A Walk in the Park: Andy Pages Delivers With the Bases Loaded as Dodgers Eliminate Braves 4-1 and Reach a Third Straight NLCS
By Jess Henderson ·
Michael Harris II had not batted higher than cleanup in any of Atlanta's postseason games before Walt Weiss put him at the top of the order for Game 4 of the National League Division Series, according to MLB.com, and Harris was standing on home plate before the first inning was over, with what turned out to be the only run the Braves would score. Andy Pages, who went 0-for-7 in the first two games of the series, broke a 1-1 tie with a two-out, two-run single off Robert Suarez in the seventh, Max Muncy homered in the ninth, and the Dodgers won 4-1 at Truist Park on Wednesday night to take the series 3-1 and reach the NL Championship Series for the third straight year.
Harris grounded Tyler Glasnow's first pitch of the bottom of the first into right field for a single and stole second during Ronald Acuña Jr.'s at-bat. Acuña was called out on strikes, and Matt Olson's grounder to second moved Harris to third. On an 0-2 pitch to Ozzie Albies, Glasnow bounced a knuckle curve that got away for a wild pitch, Harris scored, and Albies grounded out two pitches later.
The Dodgers tied it in the second without a hit. Shohei Ohtani, batting fourth, walked on five pitches from Tyler Mahle, the last three of them splitters out of the zone. He broke for second as Teoscar Hernández struck out swinging on a full-count splitter, and when Sean Murphy's throw got away, Ohtani went on to third. Muncy then reached on a fielding error by shortstop Mauricio Dubón, Ohtani scored, and Kiké Hernández grounded Mahle's next pitch into a 3-6-3 double play.
Mahle said Tuesday that the abdominal pull he pitched through in the Wild Card Series was a "non-issue," per the Associated Press, and for most of Wednesday he pitched like it. No Dodger reached second base against him after the second inning. He struck out Will Smith, Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández in order in the fourth, all three of them on 2-2 pitches, and from the start of the third inning through Ohtani's groundout in the seventh he retired 13 of 15 hitters, allowing only singles to Pages and Kyle Tucker.
Glasnow's night was less tidy and almost as effective. He gave up one hit, Harris's single in the first, and walked five in 4 2/3 innings. Two of the walks came in the fifth, to Austin Riley leading off and to Acuña on four pitches with two outs, after Glasnow had struck Harris out looking, and Dave Roberts went to Alex Vesia with Glasnow at 78 pitches. Vesia got Olson to ground out to second on his first pitch.
Atlanta had a runner in scoring position again in the sixth, when Albies drove a leadoff double off Vesia and Teoscar Hernández leaped for it at the wall, crashed into the padding and stayed down holding the left side of his head, according to USA Today. He stayed in the game and caught Drake Baldwin's line drive for the next out. Edgardo Henriquez came on after that, pinch-hitter Lane Thomas grounded out to third, and Dubón lined out to Tucker in right.
The seventh began with Ohtani grounding out on Mahle's first pitch, and Hernández, an inning after hitting the wall, lined the next pitch into right field for a single. Weiss took Mahle out at 85 pitches and brought in Didier Fuentes, a 21-year-old rookie, per Yahoo Sports. Fuentes got Muncy to ground out to second, which moved Hernández up, and then threw 10 more pitches, only two of them strikes, while walking pinch-hitter Josue De Paula and Tucker to load the bases. Tommy Edman ran for De Paula.
Weiss went to Suarez, and Pages took two balls, fouled off a fastball, let a changeup bounce for ball three and swung through a fastball to run the count full, then hit a 99.7 mph fastball on the ground into center field. Hernández and Edman scored, and Tucker went from first to third. It was the Dodgers' first hit with a runner in scoring position in the series, according to Yahoo Sports. Mahle was charged with two runs, one of them earned, though only Ohtani scored while he was in the game, and Fuentes was charged with Edman's run. Betts grounded into a force play to end the inning.
Pages went 4-for-51 last October and was benched during the Dodgers' run to the 2025 World Series title, Yahoo Sports noted, and after he started this series hitless, Roberts was asked Monday whether he would keep playing him. "I believe in him," Roberts said, per Yahoo Sports. "I feel that for us to win the World Series this year, we're gonna need him to be an active part of our team." I copied that answer into my journal on Monday, a couple of lines below a reminder to buy coffee filters, and wrote a question next to it about how long a manager's belief holds up in a five-game series. Most questions I leave in that journal stay open for months, but this one was answered within two days, because Pages went 4-for-7 in Atlanta and drove in the two runs that put the Dodgers ahead to stay on Wednesday.
Henriquez, who got the win, pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings, and his only trouble came in the seventh, when Harris lined a two-out double into right and Acuña grounded out to Betts. Tanner Scott struck out Olson swinging to start the eighth, got Albies on a grounder to short and struck out Baldwin looking on a 2-2 fastball that the Braves challenged with their last ABS challenge and lost, per SI. In the ninth, Muncy fell behind 1-2 against Raisel Iglesias, worked the count full and hit the seventh pitch of the at-bat 389 feet to right field. SI's Noah Camras noted it was the 19th home run of Muncy's postseason career. Edwin Díaz struck out pinch-hitter Rowdy Tellez looking and got Dubón and Riley on fly balls to Tucker, and the last one settled into his glove at 8:03 p.m. Central.
The Dodgers' bullpen allowed two hits and no runs in 4 1/3 innings. MLB.com noted before the game that Roberts was tied with Tony La Russa for second on the all-time list with 71 postseason wins, behind Joe Torre's 84, so this win puts him in second by himself.
Atlanta scored eight runs in four games and went 1-for-23 with runners in scoring position in the series, according to Yahoo Sports. On Wednesday, Harris reached base three times and scored the Braves' only run, and the rest of their lineup went 1-for-27.
Up Next
The NL Championship Series starts Sunday, Oct. 11. The Brewers led the Padres 2-1 in the other NLDS going into Game 4 at Petco Park on Wednesday night. If Milwaukee wins the series, Game 1 will be in Milwaukee, and if San Diego wins it, Game 1 will be at Dodger Stadium, according to SI. The Dodgers swept the Brewers in last year's NLCS.
Finishing in four means the Dodgers did not have to use Tarik Skubal in a Game 5 and can set him up for two NLCS starts, as Dodgers Digest pointed out before the game. The Braves won five of their six regular-season games against Los Angeles, according to MLB.com, and won one of the four games in this series.