This hasn’t been the best of seasons for Tommy Edman or the best of postseasons for Andy Pages.
But both stepped up when they were needed most Thursday, with Edman singling to start the game-winning rally and Pages’ soft comebacker to the mound starting the strange play that gave the Dodgers a 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 4 of the National League Division Series. The victory sends the team on to next week’s NL Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs or Milwaukee Brewers.
For Edman, baseball’s biggest stage has long been a comfortable place. If teammate Kiké Hernández has proven to be one of the best postseason players in recent history, Edman isn’t far behind. In five playoff series with the Dodgers, Edman, a .258 hitter in the regular season, is batting .306. And last October he had 11 hits and 11 RBIs against the Mets in the NLCS, winning MVP honors.
Read more: Dodgers defeat Phillies in a wild, instant-classic walk-off to reach the NLCS
“Tommy is a competitor,” infielder Miguel Rojas said during the Dodgers’ beer-soaked victory celebration, a pair of ski googles on his head and a bottle of champagne in one hand. “I feel like everything that happens to him in this stage is not a coincidence.”
Edman certainly deserves something for the patience and persistence he showed during a trying summer. A right ankle injury, which sent him to the injury list twice, limited him to just 97 games and his .225 batting average and 78 hits were his lowest totals for a full season. Yet despite playing in discomfort during the playoffs, he’s hit safely in four of the five games in which he’s appeared.
“Everybody on our team likes the big moment,” Edman said. “We just do our best to keep on passing the baton and find a way to win.”
Edman made his biggest contribution in the 11th inning Thursday, though he had to watch from the bench to see how it played out. With one out, Edman battled through an eight-pitch at-bat before lining a single to left, the Dodgers’ first hit since the seventh inning.
Edman then exited for pinch-runner Hyeseong Kim, who came around to score the winning run on a single, a walk and Pages’ two-hopper back to the mound that Phillies’ pitcher Orion Kerkering fumbled, then threw away. The comic sequence so surprised Kim, he ran past the plate before returning to make sure the run counted.
Tommy Edman hits a single during the Dodgers’ 2-1 win over the Phillies in Game 4 of the NLDS at Dodger Stadium on Thursday night. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
“You see the ball come off the bat, you think it’s the third out, and you see him boot it and throw the ball away,” Edman said. “And that’s the game right there. Definitely not the way we expected to win.”
It may not have been pretty, or even particularly memorable. But it kept alive the Dodgers’ quest to win a second consecutive World Series.
“We’re glad to be moving on,” Edman said. “And hopefully it ends well with a few more wins.”
While Edman is at his best under the postseason spotlight, Pages is…well, the opposite. He hit .211 with more strikeouts than hits in the first two playoff series last fall and was left off the roster for the World Series.
His struggles have been even more pronounced this fall. When he came to the plate with the bases loaded in the 11th inning Thursday, he was 1 for 23 in the postseason.
He managed to put the ball in play, however, and Kerkering did the rest.
“Anything can happen when you put the ball in play,” Rojas said. “He’s been fighting, and he’s been going through it in the [batting] cage. I know how hard he works. The confidence that he can get from this is going to be amazing.”
Across the room Pages stood in an expanding puddle of champagne, clutching a handful of Budweiser bottles as teammates took turns pouring beer over this head.
“I knew that moment would come,” he said in Spanish. “The two at-bats before the last one, I had good at-bats. But it wasn’t my moment. So, I just thought maybe there will be another one.”
For Pages, who batted .272 with 27 homers and 86 RBIs during the regular season, it wasn’t the most impressive at-bat in his short career. But it may have been the most important.
“Our goal has always been the same: to win the World Series,” Pages said.“To keep moving forward, keep winning games, is what ultimately matters to us.”
But there’s also something personal at stake for Pages, who grew up in Cuba so poor his carpenter father made the bats he played with. He escaped from the island at 15 to chase a pro career, the only thing that would make that sacrifice worth the price. His parents, meanwhile, remain in Cuba, separated from a son who they follow on TV and through social media.
Read more: Plaschke: A wild finish propels the Dodgers into NLCS and past their toughest playoff test
So Pages, juggling the beer bottles, took a moment to raise a toast to them in the bedlam of the victory celebration.
“To all the people who supported me during the bad times I was going through,” he said. “I am always grateful to them.”
Thursday he and Edman gave those people something to cheer.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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