shook his head with a smile, raised his clasped fingers to the sky, then gave thanks with a much-needed sigh of aid.
It didn’t matter that the had been getting . Or that his fifth-inning residence run did little to halt the group’s sudden skid on this week’s highway journey.
For one second, for one at-bat, the second-year slugger had lastly skilled a second of reassurance, hitting a two-strike slider past the attain of two leaping Washington Nationals outfielders for his first lengthy ball of the season.
“It was positively a way of aid,” Pages stated in Spanish by way of a group interpreter after the sport. “Similar to a giant, main breath of recent air, for certain.”
As much as that time, the 2025 season had begun ominously for the 24-year-old middle fielder. He was 4 for 35 on the plate. He had made a number of psychological errors on protection and the bottom paths. And he’d grown more and more burdened by the precariousness of his state of affairs, inching ever nearer to a -esque trajectory of regressing from a productive rookie season to a disheartening sophomore marketing campaign.
Pages didn’t present these simmering feelings as he left the batter’s field Tuesday. He stored his head down and face straight as he trotted across the bases.
However again within the dugout, the as soon as highly-touted prospect lastly let himself really feel some self-satisfaction. For weeks, strain had been constructing round him. This was a sudden launch.
“It gave me much more confidence,” Pages reiterated. “To get some outcomes … was a significant elevate off my again.”
Regardless of batting .248 with 13 residence runs and 46 RBIs final season — a promising, if inconsistent, rookie efficiency punctuated by a in Recreation 5 of the Nationwide League Championship Collection — Pages knew he’d have few certainties with this yr’s title-defending group.
From the start of spring coaching, he stated, “the group informed me that I didn’t have a assured spot, that I needed to work my technique to get a big-league spot.”
Though Pages broke camp because the membership’s main middle fielder, his early-season struggles had been weighing on him.
“That’s added just a little little bit of stress to my day-to-day,” he acknowledged. “I really feel good. It’s simply a number of the issues that I’ve been working by way of haven’t labored out.”
Blunders within the outfield (the place he has misplayed a number of fly balls, together with a rocket from Philadelphia Phillies star ) and on the bases (the place he has run by way of cease indicators and been caught twice on over-aggressive base-running selections) had been probably the most obvious moments of failure over the season’s first two weeks.
“Some performs that I simply have to make,” Pages stated, “I haven’t made them.”
On the root of his frustrations, nonetheless, has been his early lack of ability to persistently produce on the plate — the place, even after accumulating 4 hits and two residence runs in his final three video games, he’s batting simply .171 with a .648 OPS.
In spite of everything, the principle purpose Pages is on the big-league roster over different triple-A choices comparable to utilityman (the slick-fielding offseason signing from South Korea who to work on revamping his swing) and outfielder Esteury Ruiz (the 2023 American League stolen base chief the Dodgers acquired from the Oakland A’s final week) is due to his bat.
Thus, even over an exceedingly small pattern dimension getting into this week’s collection in Washington, his lagging general numbers had turn out to be trigger for concern.
“I’m making an attempt to do the issues that I can do day-after-day, to work onerous, to get higher on the plate, making changes,” Pages stated on Monday, when supervisor stored him out of the lineup to let him reset mentally.
“I’ve been doing plenty of good issues,” he insisted. “However balls aren’t falling.”
To Roberts, Pages’ droop had much less to do with swing mechanics, and extra with “passivity” in his offensive method.
An aggressive hitter ordinarily, Pages had appeared too cautious within the field within the early going this yr. Batting close to the underside of the Dodgers lineup — usually, within the No. 9 gap with behind him within the leadoff spot — he began taking extra pitches than ordinary, and shortening his swing to go the opposite approach.
It has helped Pages stroll extra, drawing free passes at double the speed he did final yr. However the pop in his bat had gone lacking. Routine fly outs to proper subject had been an excessively frequent prevalence.
“Simply to be just a little bit extra aggressive, shifting the sector just a little bit extra in direction of the middle, the massive a part of the sector, I believe could be extra useful,” Roberts stated.
Tuesday’s residence run, hit on an arching line to the left-center-field bullpen, served as a long-awaited first instance.
One other got here on Wednesday afternoon, in two starkly contrasting mid-game at-bats.
Within the fourth inning of the towards the Nationals, Pages took three consecutive thigh-high, center-cut sinkers from right-hander Jake Irvin, kicking himself after taking place wanting with Ohtani looming on deck.
“I’m not used to hitting in that a part of the order, and I’m making an attempt to see as many pitches as I can,” Pages stated, concurring with Roberts’ evaluation of his overly conservative early-season method. “Generally I get too passive for that purpose, which isn’t good for me.”
Thus, his subsequent time up within the high of the seventh, Pages swung at three straight sliders from reliever Eduardo Salazar. The primary two, he whiffed on. However the third, which was left up within the zone and out over the plate, he launched to the left subject seats for a game-tying blast — his second residence run in a 24-hour span.
“I simply inform him to go aggressive,” stated veteran teammate , who has turn out to be an in depth mentor of Pages’ since early final season. “He’s an aggressive hitter. So simply get able to hit.”
Roberts agreed, noting Pages remains to be “calibrating” the best steadiness of endurance and aggression.
“He must sort of determine the place his strengths are within the hitting zone,” Roberts added, “and if he sees it there, then simply be as aggressive as it’s good to be.”
It’s all a part of the persevering with training for Pages; the sort of rising pains the Dodgers are keen to tolerate, for now, in hopes he can blossom right into a extra constant offensive drive as an on a regular basis big-league participant.
There are nonetheless defensive fundamentals to drill residence, and baserunning errors to eradicate.
There are nonetheless alternate options down the depth chart, too, if Pages can’t flip this week’s two-homer outburst right into a extra extended interval of success.
However, “for him to begin getting outcomes is sweet,” stated one other veteran teammate, . “I do know what it’s to be younger and struggling within the huge leagues. There’s individuals behind you making an attempt to take your job. I understand how that feels. However when you begin getting just a little extra calm and unfastened — that’s what it looks as if together with his at-bats proper now. He’s beginning to get in a rhythm.”
Added Teoscar Hernández, with a large smile after Pages’ residence run on Wednesday helped lead the Dodgers to a come-from-behind win: “He’s gonna hit. He’s hitter. He’s gonna be superb. And he’s gonna assist us quite a bit this yr, too.”
