Rookie outfielder Andy Pages, who helped inject some offense in the bottom half of the Dodgers lineup, has found himself in the first slump of his young career.
In the 18 games before he got called up, the Dodgers seventh, eighth and ninth hitters were slashing just .166/.229/.236. Pages immediately made an impact and took the starting job over the struggling Chris Taylor.
In his 15 games, Pages has slashed .333/.354/.567 with three home runs. However in the 10 games since his hot start, he is only hitting .150/.222/.250 and one homer.
One offensive area Pages lacks comes in his patience at the plate. He has only drawn three walks in 110 plate appearances and according to Baseball Savant, his base on balls rate is only in the 5th percentile of qualified hitters.
With the league adjusting to Pages, pitchers are taking advantage of his low walk rate and having him chase offerings outside the zone. Pages has a 38.8% chase rate, which is only in the 8th percentile of hitters. Pages chases breaking pitches, such as sliders or curveballs, 47.2% of the time.
Pages' willingness to swing the bat has led him to strike out 29.1% of his trips to the plate, putting him in the 16th percentile of hitters.
Heading into Friday's game against the Cincinnati Reds, Pages had struck out six times in his last nine at-bats. The team gave Taylor the start over Pages on Thursday, though he would come off the bench and knock a pinch-hit single in the ninth inning.
Another interesting stat with Pages – his batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is .338, while his actual batting average is .267. This means when Pages puts the ball in play, he finds holes through the defense and gets on base.
With Jayson Heyward returning from the injured list any day now, the Dodgers will have to make a tough decision on who gets taken off the 26-man roster. Pages and James Outman are candidates to be sent down to the minor leagues while Taylor is in danger of being designated for assignment.
