The list of Dodgers center fielders to hit two home runs in a postseason game was not long. It consisted of one player, Hall of Famer Duke Snider, the former Brooklyn Dodgers star who homered twice in Game 6 of the 1952 World Series and Game 5 of the 1955 World Series against the New York Yankees.
That list doubled in size Friday night when Andy Pages, a 23-year-old rookie from Cuba, hit a solo home run in the fourth inning and a three-run shot in the fifth, both to left-center field, one of two bright spots for the Dodgers in a 12-6 loss to the New York Mets in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series at Citi Field.
Pages, who was demoted to triple-A Oklahoma City in August and had one hit and four strikeouts in his first 10 playoff at-bats, also singled in the second inning, a three-hit, four-RBI effort that the Dodgers were unable to capitalize on but which could be significant when the series returns to Los Angeles for Game 6 on Sunday night.
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The Mets’ Game 6 starter will be Sean Manaea, a left-hander with a funky sidearm delivery and six-pitch mix who limited the Dodgers to two earned runs and two hits, striking out seven and walking four, in five innings of New York’s 7-3 Game 2 victory in Dodger Stadium last Monday.
The right-handed-hitting Pages hit .248 with a .712 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 13 homers and 46 RBIs in 116 games this season, but he hit .357 with a .917 OPS against left-handers. He struck out in two at-bats against Manaea in Game 2, but manager Dave Roberts said Pages will be back in center field for Game 6.
“We need a guy who’s going to kill lefties, and he and Tommy [Edman] have been doing that,” second baseman Gavin Lux said. “I think Pages is one of the best hitters in the game against left-handed pitching. For him to keep doing that, to take good at-bats against good arms, it’s valuable.”
Pages singled to right-center off Mets left-hander David Peterson in the second inning and crushed Peterson’s first-pitch sinker for a homer in the fourth, the ball leaving his bat at 107.2 mph and traveling 418 feet.
Facing right-hander Reed Garrett in the fifth, Pages…