LOS ANGELES — A realization of a World Series dream is not the same for everybody.

If the Dodgers are to become the first MLB team since 2000 to win three consecutive titles, Andy Pages’ early-season determination just might be the inspiration the current stagnant offense needs.

Pages’ 2025 World Series was different from the rest. While the Dodgers were searching for a path through the Toronto Blue Jays and grinding through a seven-game series, Pages was a shell of himself at the plate.

He had been for some time.

When Pages delivered two home runs in an Aug. 25 home game against the Cincinnati Reds last season, it gave him 23 on the season and within reach of an unlikely 30-homer year with more than a month left in the regular season.

All of that production was coming from a player that had just established himself as an everyday outfielder in his second season. But Pages’ offensive numbers dropped across the board the rest of the way.

Pages limped to the finish line in the regular season, batting .125 over his final eight games but with two home runs that helped make the overall output bearable. And then the postseason arrived.

In the 17 playoff games Pages started through Game 4 of the World Series, he batted .080 with four hits and 11 strikeouts. He did not hit a home run and had one extra-base hit, with one RBI. His defense was valued. His offense was a liability.

Pages did not start in any of the final three World Series games but was a defensive replacement in two. He was effectively benched on baseball’s biggest stage.

From that limited role, though, Pages made not only his biggest impact on the playoffs, but on the entire season. And it did not come at the plate.

In the bottom of the ninth inning at Toronto, with the bases loaded, in a tied Game 7, Pages raced from center field, crashed into left fielder Kiké Hernandez and made a fully focused game-saving catch to force extra innings.

The play gave Yoshinobu Yamamoto the runway to finish off a heroic 2⅔-inning pitching performance and allowed Will Smith to step up with his game-winning and championship-clinching home run in the 11th inning.

The Dodgers celebrated a title. Pages celebrated too. But in the entire episode, he gained the inspiration for a hard-working offseason.

Through just six regular-season games, after some focused prep time in Arizona, Pages has nine hits, including a home run and five RBIs, with a .439 batting average and a 1.048 OPS. His teammates have taken notice.

“Andy’s been great since spring training,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said after Wednesday’s 4-1 loss to the Cleveland Guardians. “He’s one of the ones that carried it from spring training into the season. Andy looks good, both sides of the ball. Really happy for him. So hopefully the rest of us can join him on Friday.”

After struggling to hit last fall, Pages is the only one in a Dodgers uniform hitting right now, outside of Miguel Rojas. At the top of the Dodgers’ order, which includes monsters like Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Tucker and Mookie Betts, none of them has a batting average better than .174 or an OPS higher than .590.

Smith has opened the season batting .200 and Freeman hopped over the .200 mark with nis ninth-inning home run Wednesday that merely prevented the Guardians from finishing a shutout.

The Dodgers are middle of the MLB pack in OPS over the first week of the season at .689. They were the best in the National League during the regular season a year ago in the same category, and second in MLB, at .768.

“Baseball is baseball,” Freeman said, hardly ready to hit the panic button. “I know we’re looking for some answers here, but we’re still OK. We’re 4-2. We have not played well yet as an offense. We’ll get it going.”

While praising Dodgers fans for their energy over the opening six-game homestand, manager Dave Roberts said the first road trip of the season will be good for his team. It will be anything but a simple East Coast getaway.

The Dodgers will experience the energy of the Washington Nationals’ home opener Friday afternoon then head back into the cauldron at Toronto, where Blue Jays fans and players alike will be intent on revenge.

“I do think, being that kind of road team, having a hostile crowd, certainly in Toronto, is gonna be kind of crazy,” Roberts said. “But the Nats have an opening series, and they’re playing well, so it’ll be energy-ridden there. I do think that our offense will kind of come to life when we get on the road. I see that.”

Maybe it will get on track in the new setting, away from a weeklong celebration of last year’s accomplishments. Or perhaps the law of averages will simply join the trip.

Pages does not look as if he wants to take anything for chance. If he learned anything from his Game 7 catch last season, it was that even in hard times, an ability to stay locked into the task at hand can have its rewards. It helped him in October and then put a charge into his offseason preparation.

“I think a play like that gives you a lot of energy, a lot of focus you can bring into (the season),” Pages said through an interpreter. “But I think a lot of the things that give me the ability, or have helped me kind of grow that confidence, is just to prepare the way that I prepare.

“The way that I go about things every day, and the way that I was able to get ready to make a (catch) like that, it’s about being prepared to do it.”

UP NEXT

Dodgers (RHP Emmet Sheehan, 0-0, 10.80 ERA) at Nationals (RHP Miles Mikolas, 0-1, 7.20), 10:05 a.m. PT Friday, SportsNet LA, AM 570