Tommy Edman and Andy Pages put struggles aside to be key part of decisive Dodgers’ inning

It hasn’t been the best of seasons for Tommy Edman or the best of the playoffs for Andy Pages.

But both stepped up when they were needed most Thursday, with Edman singled to start the game-winning rally and Pages’ sweet return to the mound starting the odd play that gave the Dodgers a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 4 of the National League Division Series. The win sends the team to next week’s National League Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs or Milwaukee Brewers.

For Edman, baseball’s biggest stage has long been a comfortable place. While teammate Kiké Hernández has proven to be one of the best post-season players in recent history, Edman isn’t far behind. In five postseasons with the Dodgers, Edman, a .258 hitter in the regular season, is hitting .306. And last October, he had 11 hits and 11 RBIs against the Mets in the NLCS, earning MVP honors.

“Tommy is a competitor,” infielder Miguel Rojas said during the Dodgers’ beer-soaked victory celebration, a pair of ski goggles on his head and a bottle of champagne in one hand. “I feel like whatever is happening to him at this point is not a coincidence.”

Edman certainly deserves something for the patience and perseverance he showed during a trying summer. An injury to his right ankle, which sent him to the injured list twice, limited him to just 97 games and his .225 batting average and 78 hits were his lowest totals for a full season. Yet despite his discomfort during the postseason, he hit safely in four of the five games he played.

“Everyone on our team loves big moments,” Edman said. “We’re just doing our best to keep passing the baton and find a way to win.”

Edman made his greatest contribution to the 11^th inning on Thursday, although he had to watch from the bench to see how it played out. With one out, Edman fought through eight pitches at the plate before lining a single to left, the Dodgers’ first hit since the seventh inning.

Edman then came out to pinch runner Hyeseong Kim, who came in to score the winning run on a single, a walk and Pages’ double jump to the mound that Phillies pitcher Orion Kerkering fumbled, then threw away. The comical sequence surprised Kim so much that he ran in front of the plate before running back to make sure the run counted.

Tommy Edman hits a single in the Dodgers’ 2-1 win over the Phillies in Game 4 of the NLDS at Dodger Stadium on Thursday night.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

“You see the ball come off the bat, you think it’s the third out, and you see him start and throw the ball,” Edman said. “And that’s the game out there. Certainly not the way we expected to win.”

It might not have been pretty, or even particularly memorable. But it kept the Dodgers’ quest to win a second straight World Series alive.

“We’re happy to move on,” Edman said. “And I hope it ends well with a few more wins.”

While Edman is at his best in the playoff spotlight, Pages is…well, the opposite. He hit .211 with more strikeouts than hits in the first two postseasons last fall and was left off the World Series roster.

His difficulties were even more pronounced this fall. When he came to the plate with the bases loaded at 11^th round on Thursday, he was 1 for 23 in the postseason.

However, he manages to put the ball back into play and Kerkering does the rest.

“Anything can happen when you put the ball in play,” Rojas said. “He fought, and he lived it in the [batting] cage. I know how hard he works. The confidence he will be able to gain from this is going to be incredible.

Across the room, Pages stood in a growing puddle of champagne, holding a handful of Budweiser bottles while his teammates took turns pouring beer over that head.

“I knew this moment would come,” he said in Spanish. “The two at-bats before the last one, I had good at-bats. But it wasn’t my time. So, I just thought maybe there would be another one.”

For Pages, who hit .272 with 27 homers and 86 RBIs during the regular season, it wasn’t the most impressive bat of his short career. But perhaps it was the most important.

“Our goal has always been the same: to win the World Series,” Pages said. “Keep moving forward, keep winning games, that’s what ultimately matters to us.”

But there’s also something personal at stake for Pages, who grew up in Cuba so poor that his carpenter father made the bats he played with. He escaped the island at age 15 to pursue a professional career, the only thing worth the price of that sacrifice. His parents, for their part, remain in Cuba, separated from a son whom they follow on television and on social networks.

So Pages, juggling beer bottles, took a moment to toast them amid the chaos of the victory celebration.

“To all the people who supported me during the difficult times I was going through,” he said. “I’m always grateful to them.”

On Thursday, he and Edman gave those people something to cheer about.