Rookie sensation Pages delivers walk-off single on 4-hit night

LOS ANGELES -- In the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street,” there’s that famous scene when Jordan Belfort, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, begins to shout into the microphone, letting everyone know he’s not leaving his company behind. As DiCaprio’s voice gets louder, so do the cheers of his employees.

Over the last few weeks, Dodgers rookie Andy Pages has done his best DiCaprio impersonation. But instead of shouting into a microphone, Pages is letting his bat do all the talking. With the way the 23-year-old Cuban outfielder has hit over the last few weeks, he’s letting everyone in the organization know that he’s not leaving. After every hit, the cheers of the crowd only get louder.

The latest example of Pages’ brilliant start to his career came on Friday night, as he capped off the first four-hit game of his career with a walk-off RBI single off Jesse Chavez to lead the Dodgers to a 4-3 win over the Braves in 11 innings at Dodger Stadium.

“Watching him play, watching him develop these last couple weeks up here, he’s a great guy,” said Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernández, who homered in the third inning to open the scoring. “He’s always trying to get better. Today he showed that he’s made for the big moments. He’s not afraid to go out there and have success.”

When the Dodgers and Braves meet, it’s usually must-watch television. The teams have been the class of the National League in the regular season over the last couple of years. Some of the Dodgers’ moves in the offseason were with the Braves in mind. The same goes for Atlanta.

The intensity at Dodger Stadium didn’t feel like any other May 3 game. It was palpable throughout the night, especially when Shohei Ohtani showed some rare emotion as he saw an RBI single in the 10th inning skip past a pair of diving infielders. For most, the moment can get too big. Not for Pages.

With one out and runners at the corners in the 11th, Pages was due up in the biggest spot of the game. In that situation, all Pages needed to do was make sure to put the ball in play. Just find a way to get the winning run in from third. That, of course, is easier said than done, especially for such a young player.

Right away, Chavez made it all the more difficult by jumping out to a 1-2 count. Pages then countered by taking a cutter and curveball off the plate to push it to a full count. He then fouled off two more pitches, spoiling some of Chavez’s best offerings. Then, on the eighth pitch of the at-bat, Pages finally got enough of a cutter to dump it into center field for the game-winning hit.

“It’s happened to me in the past where I get anxious and I don’t get the job done,” Pages said in Spanish. “This time I was just trying to stay calm and things worked out.”

Through 60 at-bats in the Majors, Pages just always seems calm. Even when he came through on Friday, it took him a few seconds to realize what he had done. There’s a level of confidence that isn’t too common for a player his age and with his inexperience.

But since he came up a few weeks ago because of an extended injury with Jason Heyward, all Pages has done is hit. With his four-hit game, he has now hit safely in nine consecutive games. Over his last seven games, Pages is 12-for-29 with one homer and has punched out only three times.

“Really impressive from Andy,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “He wasn’t going to let anyone else win that game for us tonight. We trusted the head, trusted the talent, obviously, and he just rose to the occasion. It was fun to watch.”

Over the next few weeks, the Dodgers will have some decisions to make with their roster. Heyward will be back healthy. James Outman and Chris Taylor haven’t shown much to inspire confidence that they’re on the verge of breaking out of their respective slumps. Pages, on the other hand, continues to show every bit of why he was one of the top prospects in the Minors coming into the season.

At a time when the Dodgers were looking for a spark near the bottom of the order, they’ve found one in Pages. And perhaps most fittingly, Pages has a wolf tattoo on his left arm. He isn’t planning on leaving, at least not anytime soon.

“Right now, he's checking a lot of boxes and he's performing,” Roberts said. “He's creating his own opportunities."