Dodgers' Andy Pages helps steal NL West lead with season's best at-bat

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Andy Pages knew he had to get his timing right. Down 0-2 in the count against San Diego Padres closer Mason Miller and his MLB-best 53.6% strikeout rate, with the go-ahead run 90 feet away in the top of the ninth inning, he knew he had no choice but to be ready for Miller's stuff.

But as he fouled off pitch after pitch, Pages felt his confidence grow.

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"I just followed my plan," he told reporters in Spanish. "I fell behind early ... but fouling off those good pitches he was throwing me, I realized that I was 100% going to move the ball forward."

Then, on the ninth pitch of the at-bat, after fouling off the last three in a row from Miller, Pages did exactly that. The 25-year-old slugger connected on a 101.5 mph heater at chest level and sent it looping into right field, just deep enough for Alex Call to tag up from third and narrowly beat the throw at home from Fernando Tatis Jr. to put the Los Angeles Dodgers in position for the 5-4 win — and a half-game lead in the National League West.

"I think that was one of the greatest at-bats I've ever seen in person, and I've been playing a long time," Freddie Freeman told reporters. "That at-bat was incredible. To hit 95 is hard, to hit 100 is even harder. To hit 102, is probably the hardest thing to do."

Just putting a 101.5 mph pitch in play off of Miller — who to that point had only allowed a run scored on pitches above 101 mph 13 times in his big league career — was noteworthy. But the way it happened speaks volumes of the strides Pages has made at the plate.

He fouled off six total pitches, and the last three before his sac fly went as follows: he pulled a 101.4 mph fastball up in the zone to right. Miller then mixed up his velo with an 87 mph slider on the upper inside corner of the plate that Pages popped back into the stands behind home plate. Miller followed that up with another slider, this time at the knees. Pages fouled that one off, too, and shook his head as he stepped back into the box.

"There were pitches that you could see I was late on, but there were also ones that I could've done a lot damage on," he told reporters. "They simply ended up foul, but there were pitches that if I could've pushed them forward, I would've done a little more damage."

Pages' clutch swing ended up being the difference as the Dodgers went on to avenge their 1-0 loss in San Diego the night prior and even up the series. They'll have a chance to create some breathing room in the standings on Wednesday with Shohei Ohtani on the mound and in the lineup for the rubber match.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Andy Pages helps Dodgers take lead in NL West with clutch at-bat

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