June 13th, 2024 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka The Dodgers lost to the Texas Rangers on Wednesday night when 23-year-old Dodgers rookie outfielder Andy Pages made a rookie mistake.
With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and Dodgers catcher Will Smith on first base (having led off the inning with a single to left) and with his team trailing 3-1, the popular La Habana, Cuba native reached first base on a five-pitch walk representing the tying run. His walk was followed by a clutch double to right-center field by Dodgers right fielder Jason Heyward scoring Smith. The ball was momentarily bobbled by Rangers center fielder Leody Taveras.
For reasons only he knows, that brief bobble caused Pages to completely ignore Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel‘s stop sign, as Taveras fired an absolute bullet to Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien who, in turn, fired a dart to Rangers catcher Jonah Heim to nail Pages at the plate by a good four feet.
(SportsNet LA)
“No, I didn’t see Dino’s stop sign. I saw the center fielder bobble the ball and I just kept going,” Pages answered the obvious question postgame through an interpreter. “I knew I was going to get to third base easily when I saw him bobble the ball. I knew I was going to try to score no matter what, ’cause I knew I was the tying run.”
The unasked (and burning) question was: If you knew you were “…going to get to third base easily,” why on earth wouldn’t you with your 49 games of MLB experience be looking directly at Dino Ebel with his 18 years of MLB experience?
Obviously, there’s no way of knowing if Pages would have scored had he not blown Ebel’s stop sign. But you gotta like their chances with who the next batter would have been. Yep, .309-hitting future Hall of Famer Mookie Betts.
A rookie mistake if ever there was one.
Play Ball!
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Posted in 
A couple days ago Pages slid into third with his front leg raised so high he missed the base and was tagged out. Last night he did not even look at Dino and stupidly ran through the stop sign. Two rookie mistakes and two games we could have won, but did not. Somehow the Dodger coaches have to get through to him and teach him some basic base running skills, or option him to AAA so he can learn these skills. Enough is enough.
During his postgame interview, he was asking if Roberts or Dino said anything to him about his base running gaff. “No, not yet,” he answered.
Dan, i feel that way as well. he’s hitting .529 in his last 15 games, that’s going to buy him some leeway. i would have benched him for at least a day. they didnt and he went 2/4 with a HR. the only dodger run. something about cutting off the nose comes to mind.
Ron, i would have loved our chances with the .309-hitting future Hall of Famer Mookie Betts at the plate. Buuuuut we still needed that .204 hitting, recently acquired, son of a hall of a famer, Cavan Biddio to get on base before that could happen.
EDIT: biGGio of course. i see the keyboard like angel hernandez sees the K zone.
Angel was my typing instructor as will … well.