ANGELES — The Dodger Stadium crowd exploded as Jason Heyward hit a ball to the right-center-field gap. It appeared for a brief moment that the Dodgers would score two runs on a double that would go over the wall.
Leody Taveras of the Rangers, who plays center field, was able to cut it off in deep right-center instead. But in the Dodgers’ 3-2 loss to the Rangers on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium, a little error by Taveras contributed to confusion on a play that decided the game, when rookie Andy Pages was thrown out at home plate while being held by third-base coach Dino Ebel.
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy remarked, “Once Leo bobbled it, I [was] getting nervous there, but you know these guys do such a great job on defense.” It doesn’t get any better than that—that was a stunning play with the game on the line. The game was thrilling.
After watching Taveras mishandle the ball in center field, Pages, who had a baserunning error against the Yankees over the weekend, stated he decided to attempt scoring. The rookie outfielder from Cuba claimed he looked down but missed seeing Ebel, who was halfway down the line, raise the stop sign.
The Dodgers would have had the game-winning run in scoring position with the recently acquired I knew right away that I would reach third. However, as soon as I noticed the center fielder slightly mishandle the ball, my thoughts turned to scoring the game-winning run,” Pages stated in Spanish. “Those experiences teach you stuff. Regretfully, those events are necessary for your recovery.
Cavan Biggio due up if Pages had stopped at third.
Pages spoke with first-base coach Clayton McCullough in his locker following the game to go over the play in more detail.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts explained, “It’s one of those things where you have a young player who doesn’t have a lot of experience, and you run him out there and that’s how they learn.” They nevertheless produced a fantastic play, although it required a flawless throw and a well-executed relay.
It was a play that the Rangers sorely needed to make before Thursday’s series finale to save themselves from needing to use additional pitchers and extra innings.
Marcus Semien, the second baseman, was instrumental in the play. He received the relay throw from Taveras in right-center field and hit catcher Jonah Heim with a clean strike at the plate. The Dodgers would have knotted the game at three if Semien hadn’t delivered a strong throw to the plate, even though all eyes were focused on Pages sprinting through the stop sign.
“If Leody caught the ball clean, I wanted him to go to second, but it got bobbled, so I said, ‘Here we go, we’re probably going four,'” Semien remarked. “He appeared to be held up by Dino at third, but he breezed through it. From that distance, I really thought he was going to flee, so it’s a positive sensation for me.
All Heim had to do to get Pages at the plate was slide slightly to his left after securing the throw. The Dodgers contested the call on the field following the play to see whether Heim had blocked the plate. A cursory examination verified that the Rangers’ flawlessly executed relay was an out. Texas now has an opportunity to play a series at Dodger Stadium beginning Thursday.
“Nice tag, Jonah, good catch,” Semien remarked. He truly is very skilled at that. He got caught for blocking the plate in a similar circumstance we had in Chicago last year, but he really takes care in making sure he does it correctly. He performed flawlessly today.”
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