Dodgers 4, Braves 3: Andy Pages gives the Dodgers their 1st walk-off of the season in his 4th hit of the game

Chad Moriyama 05/03/2024 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

The Dodgers kicked off their homestand with a tough series against the Braves, and it was a cagey game early. It ended up being something of a pitchers’ duel with Gavin Stone barely coming out on top. However, a late homer tied things up and send it to extras. That’s usually a nightmare for the Dodgers, but after the team exchanged runs initially, it was Andy Pages that walked it off for 4-3 victory in 11.

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The game started in exciting fashion, for better or worse. Ronald Acuna Jr. led the game off with a bloop single after James Outman and Teoscar Hernandez got poor reads off the bat, and he advanced to second on a groundout. Stone and Gavin Lux then worked to backpick him at second for the out, and Acuna looked shaken up on the play.

Despite that gift, Stone and Will Smith decided to throw a 3-1 fastball right down the dick to Austin Riley, and he jolted it out of the park for a 1-0 Braves lead. Could’ve been worse, should’ve been better.

On the other side was Charlie Morton, who worked around a two-out double in the 1st and saw more trouble in the 2nd. A lead-off walk to Max Muncy was followed by a strikeout and groundout by Andy Pages that saw him trade places with Max. That was significant, because after James Outman got hit by a pitch, Gavin Lux singled to left and Dino Ebel sent the faster Pages home. Unfortunately, Jarred Kelenic uncorked a laser of a throw home to get him and preserve the 1-0 lead for the Braves.

Morton finally relented in the 3rd, as a Shohei Ohtani walk led to a runner in scoring position after he swiped second (6-for-6 on the year), and then came home to score when Will Smith shortened up and lined a single into center to tie things at 1-1.

The bats then provided Stone with a lead in the 4th, as Teoscar Hernandez worked the count full and then got a fastball to drive on the eighth, which he took oppo for his seventh homer of the year. And thus, it was 2-1.

Morton did finish the game strong, setting down the final eight batters he faced to close his game after six innings.

Meanwhile, Stone was continuing to put up zeroes. He worked around a two-out walk and single in the 2nd, a two-out single in the 3rd, and posted clean frames in both the 4th and 5th. With the pen warming up, the 6th started with a single and a dropped pop foul, but Stone was locked in. He took just eight pitches to retire the heart of the Braves order and exited the game with the lead.

6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 5 K, 86 Pitches

Taking over for him in the 7th was Joe Kelly, whose clean inning did require a challenge on a HBP turned foul ball, but after that was resolved the inning was without drama.

Next up was Daniel Hudson, who has struggled a bit of late, giving up runs in three of his last five appearances. He got the first out on a 3-2 count, but then Acuna got to 3-2 and then hit a towering solo homer to left to tie the game up again at 2-2. Another 3-2 count led to an infield pop, he got a strikeout to end the inning, but the damage was done.

Unfortunately, the Dodger offense hadn’t done much since the 4th, and that trend continued against the Braves pen in the 7th. They got a shot at the lead in the 8th, as Ohtani drew another walk and stole second again with two outs. This time the Braves walked Dills, and Max Muncy struck out to end the threat.

As the home team, Dave Roberts did the common sense thing in the 9th and went with closer Evan Phillips. There was some excitement as Marcell Ozuna flied one to the warning track, but other than that, it was a clean 11-pitch frame.

That gave the Dodgers a chance to walk it off, but aside from the third hit of the night from Pages, there was nothing doing.

Extra baseball was in the stars, and that usually means a loss for the Dodgers.

Alex Vesia was the reliever of choice for the 10th, and given how he’s been lately and how depleted the Dodgers pen is, it’s hard to argue. He gave up a deep fly ball to advance the Manfred Runner to third, and then Orlando Arcia followed with a sac fly to put the Braves up 3-2.

That was all they got, and the Dodgers did have the top of the order coming up. Things started ominously as Mookie Betts missed hittable pitches and flew out to shallow right, but Shohei Ohtani singled with two strikes on him to tie the game up at 3-3. However, a pair of fly out left the game knotted.

For the 11th it was Michael Grove against the top of the Braves order, which seems like disaster. However, he got an infield pop and a pair of groundouts to strand the runner, and the Dodgers were setup to walk it off.

To start, Max Muncy was intentionally walked, and Teoscar followed with a grounder that resulted in just a force out at second, which cornered the runners. That left things up to the rookie Pages, who was swinging at everything and anything (and actually should’ve struck out on a check swing), but eventually got to 3-2 and then fisted a ball over the drawn-in infield to walk it off for the Dodgers!

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Not sure what Teoscar was doing here, but it was funny and he made up for it at least.

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21-13

Same two teams and same place, but an hour earlier at 3:10 PM HT/6:10 PM PT/9:10 PM ET. It’ll be Tyler Glasnow looking to continue his stellar season against Bryce Elder, which should be an advantage for the Dodgers, but … well, baseball.

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