{"id":667302,"date":"2026-04-06T23:58:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T23:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/667302\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T23:58:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T23:58:26","slug":"how-dodgers-andy-pages-worked-to-achieve-scorching-start-at-the-plate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/667302\/","title":{"rendered":"How Dodgers’ Andy Pages worked to achieve scorching start at the plate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TORONTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Dodgers<\/a>\u2019 best hitter through the first three series of the season isn\u2019t a household name. He isn\u2019t the face of any international ad campaigns or the headliner of any new Los Angeles murals.<\/p>\n

Until the Dodgers rolled out a backup-heavy lineup Sunday in their sweep-clinching win against the Nationals<\/a>, he hadn\u2019t even hit higher than sixth in the Dodgers\u2019 batting order.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake, however, Andy Pages<\/a> has steadied the Dodgers\u2019 offense despite a slow start from its biggest stars. And on Monday he was named the National League player of the week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to talk about it, let\u2019s just keep it going,\u201d first baseman Freddie Freeman said with a smile this weekend. \u201cBut it\u2019s been an incredible start that you can only dream of. Hopefully we\u2019ll keep it at that and we won\u2019t talk about it anymore than that and keep it going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can\u2019t risk jinxing it.<\/p>\n

But Pages\u2019 first nine games of the season have been incredible.<\/p>\n

He entered Monday tied for the most hits in the majors (16), matched by only the Marlins\u2019 Xavier Edwards. He led the team in WAR (0.9), and qualified Dodgers hitters in OPS (1.294).<\/p>\n

Is manager Dave Roberts<\/a> ready to pat himself on the back for making Pages his pick to click at the end of spring training?<\/p>\n

\u201cNot yet,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cMore of a sample, then I will. I really like his work. I trust his head. He\u2019s very mature. He\u2019s matured a lot over the last couple of years. He\u2019s hungry. I just felt that he was due to take another step forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fair enough, early April is prime overreaction season. But the foundation of his early success is rooted in plate discipline, which should have a lasting impact, even as he goes through the normal ups and downs of a season.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The coaching staff] always told me that when you\u2019re taking a lot of swings and you\u2019re swinging at really bad pitches, outside the zone, it\u2019s really hard to to make impact on balls in the zone, or have good approaches and good at-bats,\u201d Pages said through an interpreter. \u201cI saw that in myself but also they kind of pounded that in my head as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019d spend 30 minutes to an hour most days in spring training dialing up the Trajekt pitching machine to test his sense of the strike zone.<\/p>\n

The Trajekt can be set to mimic actual MLB pitchers\u2019 arsenals. So, looking for pitches with a lot of movement, he most often input reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes.<\/p>\n

Now that the season is underway, Pages will start with Skenes and then turn to that day\u2019s starting pitcher.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the swing is the same,\u201d Pages said. \u201cI just took notice that last year when I went on my bad runs, I just saw I was undisciplined at the plate, taking bad swings, and that tended to let in negative thoughts and being able to go in that bad headspace.\u201d<\/p>\n

His chase rate has dropped from 33.2% last season to 27.6 % entering Monday.<\/p>\n

Shortstop Mookie Betts\u2019 oblique injury over the weekend raised the question, could Pages move up in the batting order as Roberts reimagines the top of the lineup?<\/p>\n

\u201cDo I feel comfortable with him hitting in the 3?\u201d Roberts said of Pages. \u201cAbsolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are, however, other considerations. How would moving him up that high affect the rest of the order? Would opposing pitchers attack him differently?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a tax on a starting pitcher to go 1 through 6 to then get to the seventh or eighth hitter \u2014 which to his credit he has taken advantage of,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cBut if you look at the at-bats separately, he\u2019s taking really good at-bats and he\u2019s spoiling pitches, taking pitches that he needs to. I do think where his swing is at, where his head is at will translate anywhere in the order.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the first game of a World Series rematch against the Blue Jays, Pages hit sixth with right-hander Max Scherzer on the mound Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Dodgers\u2019 best hitter through the first three series of the season isn\u2019t a household name. He isn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2406],"tags":[1384,84928,5,14840,39,84929,13364,1165,4332,4333,774,57,3224,4331,12043,4,3247,3413,10336,1602,1479,9023,3846,14680],"class_list":{"0":"post-667302","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-dodgers","8":"tag-andy-pages","9":"tag-bad-pitch","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-batting-order","12":"tag-dodgers","13":"tag-good-at-bat","14":"tag-head","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-la-dodgers","17":"tag-ladodgers","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-losangelesdodgers","22":"tag-lot","23":"tag-mlb","24":"tag-monday","25":"tag-page","26":"tag-plate","27":"tag-roberts","28":"tag-season","29":"tag-swing","30":"tag-weekend","31":"tag-zone"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116360479041142083","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}