LOS ANGELES — As Jason Heyward hit a ball to the right-center-field hole, the gang at Dodger Stadium erupted. For a second, it seemed as if the Dodgers had been going to get two runs on a double that will roll to the wall.
As an alternative, Rangers middle fielder Leody Taveras was capable of minimize it off in deep right-center. A slight bobble from Taveras, nevertheless, helped create chaos on a game-ending play that resulted in rookie Andy Pages being thrown out at residence plate — regardless of being held by third-base coach Dino Ebel — within the Dodgers’ 3-2 loss to the Rangers on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.
“As soon as Leo bobbled it, I [was] getting nervous there, however you already know these guys do such an ideal job on protection,” mentioned Rangers supervisor Bruce Bochy. “That’s only a lovely play with the sport on the road and it doesn’t get higher than that. It was an thrilling sport.”
Pages, who had a baserunning mistake towards the Yankees over the weekend, mentioned he had made up his thoughts about attempting to attain as soon as he noticed Taveras bobble the ball in middle. The Cuban rookie outfielder mentioned he put his head down and by no means noticed Ebel, who was midway down the road, put up the cease signal.
Had Pages stopped at third, the Dodgers would have had the game-winning run in scoring place with the newly acquired Cavan Biggio due up.
“From the primary second, I knew I’d get to 3rd. However as quickly as I noticed the middle fielder misplay it somewhat bit, I simply considered scoring that tying run,” Pages mentioned in Spanish. “You study from these issues. Sadly, these issues should occur so that you can get higher.”
After the sport, Pages had a dialog with first-base coach Clayton McCullough at his locker to additional talk about the play.
“It’s a type of issues; you might have a younger participant who doesn’t have a number of expertise, and also you run him on the market and that’s how they study,” mentioned Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts. “But it surely nonetheless took an ideal throw and an executed relay, and so they made an ideal play.”
For the Rangers, it was a play they desperately wanted to make to be able to keep away from further innings and utilizing extra pitchers heading into Thursday’s sequence finale.
The important thing to the play got here from second baseman Marcus Semien, who took the relay throw from Taveras in right-center area and fired an ideal strike to catcher Jonah Heim on the plate. Whereas all the eye was on Pages working via the cease signal, had Semien not made a robust throw to the plate, the Dodgers would have tied the sport up at 3.
“I wished Leody to get the ball to second if he caught it clear and it received bobbled and I mentioned, ‘Right here we go, we’re in all probability going 4,’” Semien mentioned. “It seemed like Dino held him up at third, however he ran via it. I simply assumed he was going to run anyway, so it’s undoubtedly feeling from that far on the market for me.”
As soon as Heim secured the throw, all he needed to do was slide a bit to his left to get Pages on the plate. After the play, the Dodgers challenged the decision on the sector to see if Heim had blocked the plate. A fast evaluation confirmed the Rangers’ completely executed relay as an out. And in flip, Texas now has an opportunity to take a sequence at Dodger Stadium on Thursday.
“Good catch by Jonah, good tag,” Semien mentioned. “He is truly actually good at that. We had a scenario like that final yr in Chicago the place he received referred to as for blocking the plate, however he actually takes pleasure in ensuring he does it proper. He did it excellent at present.”
