LOS ANGELES — Andy Pages’ big swing decided a game and a series. Buster Posey’s big swing could decide a division.
Pages’ three-run home run with two outs in the fifth inning lifted the Dodgers to a 5-4 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Sunday afternoon.
The win gave the Dodgers back-to-back series wins against their two closest pursuers in the National League West. They took two out of three from the Padres in San Diego and the Giants in L.A. this weekend, building a two-game lead over the Giants, three over the Padres, who come to Dodger Stadium for a four-game series starting Monday night.
But the Giants leave town a much bigger threat than when they arrived. Just minutes before Sunday’s game, Posey (less than nine months into his tenure as the Giants’ president of baseball operations) swung a blockbuster trade with the Boston Red Sox that adds Rafael Devers to a lineup that ranked in the bottom third in MLB in nearly every offensive statistic.
“I just thought it was crazy. Nothing really to say, it’s just crazy,” Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts said of the timing of the trade, which brings another member of the 2018 World Series champions to the NL West – Betts in L.A., Xander Bogaerts in San Diego and now Devers in San Francisco.
“They care. They want to win. Those guys over there are doing a great job of putting a team together and obviously, they want to win.”
Devers brings much-needed left-hander power to the Giants’ lineup – whatever position he ends up playing in his new home. He has hit 15 home runs this season, the same number the Giants have gotten from every left-handed hitter that has taken an at-bat for them this season (the fewest in the National League).
“Good for Buster. He’s going for it,” Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw said during an in-game interview with ESPN Sunday night. “It makes them better, for sure.”
The deal went down so close to game time that the Giants’ scheduled starter, Kyle Harrison, was already in the visitors’ bullpen at Dodger Stadium, warming up for the game when he learned he wasn’t starting, he was departing. Harrison was part of the package sent to Boston in exchange for Devers. He will go from Dodger Stadium to Worcester – home to the Red Sox’s Triple-A team.
The Giants’ second pitcher in the game, left-hander Joey Lucchesi, wasn’t on the roster pre-game. The announcement came in mid-game that he had been called up to take Harrison’s spot on the roster.
“It was crazy,” Dodgers second baseman Tommy Edman said. “You don’t expect a trade like that this time of year and just getting the pitching change at the last minute. You have to adjust for someone else. That’s definitely a game-changer. He’s a great player.”
Reliever Sean Hjelle got the last-minute assignment to fill in for Harrison and gave up single runs in each of the first two innings – one on a solo home run by Edman.
Dustin May gave that lead away in the fourth inning.
A lack of command has characterized May’s return from elbow surgery this season. He escaped damage after walking two and loading the bases in the second inning, then hit a batter in the third.
The fourth started off well enough. He retired the first two batters. But then he gave up a single to Mike Yastrzemski and hit another batter. No. 9 hitter Christian Koss drove in a run with a single and leadoff man Jung Hoo Lee lashed a triple down the first-base line, driving in two to give the Giants a lead.
The Dodgers got it back in the fifth. Shohei Ohtani led off with one of his three singles in the game. Betts followed with another single, but the rally seemed to be dying as Freddie Freeman grounded out and Teoscar Hernandez struck out.
But Pages got a hanging slider from Giants reliever Ryan Walker and sent it 399 feet into the left-field pavilion.
“Just a slider. A pitch that he missed on and I was able to connect really well,” Pages said through an interpreter.
“It was a great series win. Good team over there. Great to come through in that moment. But it was a home run I hit for my dad who I haven’t seen in a long time.”
Pages said he dedicated the home run on Father’s Day to his own father, who remains in Cuba. Pages said he speaks with him as often as he can by phone – “with the situation in Cuba with the electricity (outages), it’s hard to get a hold of him, hard to talk to him.” But he has seen his father in person just once in the nine years since Andy left Cuba to pursue his professional baseball career.
“It’s really emotional, a special moment to hit a home run in that situation because I haven’t seen him,” Pages said. “It’s hard sometimes. But it was really special to hit a home run on Father’s Day.
“Hopefully, I can talk to him and tell him I dedicated that home run to him.”
The lead held up despite Kirby Yates giving up a solo home run to Daniel Johnson in the eighth inning (after what should have been a called strike three). Tanner Scott struck out the side to close it out in the ninth for his 13th save.
“It’s still June. It doesn’t really matter. We’ll wait til the end of the year – can’t really get caught up right now,” Betts said of back-to-back series wins over division rivals. “The season is too long to put a bunch of emotion into things right now.”