Andy Pages is entering Game 2 with an .077 batting average in these playoffs, and coming off a 0-for-four performance in Game 1 in which he struck out twice \u2014 including once with the bases loaded and only one out.<\/p>\n
However, manager Dave Roberts is keeping Pages in the lineup for now, slotting him in ninth once again for Game 2 of the Fall Classic.<\/p>\n
While Roberts said he has \u201ccontemplated\u201d taking Pages out of the lineup \u2014 the Dodgers could replace him with a more contact-minded hitter like Alex Call \u2014 he hasn\u2019t made such a move yet, in part because of the defense Pages provides in center.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s playing very sound defense,\u201d Roberts said, \u201cwhich is a big part of why he\u2019s in there.\u201d<\/p>\n
One other limitation that has kept Pages in the lineup: The Dodgers\u2019 inability to play second baseman Tommy Edman in the outfield as they did last postseason, as he continues to nurse a lingering ankle problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo not have the ability to kick him out to the outfield has certainly minimized some of that versatility, absolutely,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n
Still, Roberts conceded that the Dodgers \u201cneed to see some kind of uptick in consistency of performance\u201d from the second-year outfielder, who hit 27 home runs in the regular season but has just one extra-base hit this October.<\/p>\n
And more generally, Roberts wants to see improved at-bat quality in situational opportunities from his entire offense, with the team batting just .227 with runners in scoring position so far in the playoffs \u2014 and having failed to score more than five runs in a game since the wild-card round.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy hope is that once we create stress, then we can sort of finish off innings,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cI think we\u2019re doing a good job of getting there, but we got to do a better job of finishing, which I think that we\u2019re certainly capable of doing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Pages is entering Game 2 with an .077 batting average in these playoffs, and coming off a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":332863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1641,22896,1582,276,8329,2442,623,1910,2961,17711,224,2444,5337,14762,84346,5395,6620,8790,29238,25454],"class_list":{"0":"post-332862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-am","9":"tag-blue-jays","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-dodger","13":"tag-dodgers","14":"tag-fox","15":"tag-game","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-live-update","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-los-angeles-times","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-odd","22":"tag-rogers-centre","23":"tag-saturday","24":"tag-time","25":"tag-toronto","26":"tag-tv-schedule","27":"tag-world-series"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115438140026017407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}