Andy Pages NLDS heroics for Dodgers were a year in the making

ATLANTA – This was never about redemption.Or so Andy Pages said.“I don’t even think of what happened last year,” Pages said in Spanish.“What happened, happened.”The way Pages viewed it, his miserable offensive performance on the Dodgers’ World Series run last year wasn’t something for which he had to make up.The experience, Pages said, made him the player he is now.The player he is now drove in the runs that sank the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday night and sent the Dodgers on their way to a 4-1 victory in Game 4 of their National League Division Series. “Tonight,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “Andy picked us up huge with a big hit.”The best-of-five series over, Pages walked around the visiting clubhouse at Truist Field in a commemorative gray shirt that was soaked with cheap sparkling wine and beer.

A pair of goggles covered his forehead.“Special,” he said.“Special.”The journey here started a year ago, when Pages batted just .078 in the postseason.

By Game 5 of the World Series, he was on the bench.But Pages said he considers that World Series to be a wonderful memory, and not just because he made a game-saving catch in Game 7 as a defensive replacement. “Because we won,” he said.And rather than sulk over not starting the last three games of the World Series, Pages decided to use his failures to guide his training.To be the kind of player who could be trusted in big games, Pages figured, he had to become a more selective hitter.Improving his eye by stepping in against an artificial pitching machine called a Trajekt Arc, Pages made his first All-Star team this year.                                                                                                                                                                                      �...