Dodgers’ Andy Pages surges as he finds a way ‘to be myself’ regardless of location

LOS ANGELES — For Andy Pages, it was all about location, location, location.

Sixteen games into the season, he was hitting just .137. Batting at the bottom of the Dodgers’ lineup – 15 of his 25 starts this season have been as the No. 9 hitter – he didn’t know who he was supposed to be. He had made it to the big leagues as an aggressive power hitter but batting ninth he was also a setup man, charged with turning the lineup over and giving opportunities to Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts at the top of the order.

“I’ve never hit in that spot in the order,” Pages said through an interpreter after going 4 for 5 with a career-high four RBIs (while batting sixth). “At first I was more passive, trying to see as many pitches as possible. That’s never helped me. In my career, that’s never helped me because I get too passive. The pitches in the zone, I need to hit.”

Pages said he spoke with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and they told him to “relax, to be myself.” So he stopped thinking about where he was hitting – and started hitting.

His four-hit game Sunday was part of a 10-for-12 weekend and a 16-for-32 stretch over the past nine games.

“I think it’s more because I haven’t thought as much about where the team has me hitting,” he said of the surge. “I’ve simply done what I’ve instinctively always done and things are turning out well that way.”

The difference for Pages has been “1,000 percent” a mental adjustment, not any swing changes, Roberts said.

“I think that a big part of individual success is knowing who you are,” Roberts said. “And some people are mechanical-based, and some people – are sort of – have an approach, have an idea what the pitcher is trying to do, and then go out there and be a hitter. And that I think, in my opinion, what works best for Andy (is to be) not too concerned about where his hands are at, where his stride is at, all that stuff.”

Veteran outfielder Teoscar Hernandez has been a mentor to Pages, talking him through some defensive struggles and baserunning mistakes as well as his early-season slump.

“Everybody goes through that,” Hernandez said of Pages’ struggles finding his way as an everyday major-leaguer. “He was going through a tough moment from the beginning of the season. Now he’s feeling more comfortable at the plate, getting better pitches to hit, more selective, and he’s enjoying everything that is happening to him right now.

“It can be tough. I went through that, and it was not fun. But at the same time, you have to go through that to get to the good moments, the moments that he’s going through right now.”

SWING DADDY

Shohei Ohtani took some time to find his swing as a father. After missing two games for the birth of his first child, Ohtani returned to action and had just two hits in his next 16 at-bats. He broke out with three hits, all for extra bases (two doubles and a triple), in Saturday night’s game and was 2 for 4 with a double and a walk on Sunday.

Roberts said he saw some “overaggressiveness” in Ohtani’s initial at-bats after returning, some of which had surfaced before his paternity leave. Roberts said the 2-for-16 slump was probably a combination of the disruption of leaving the team, the life change of a first child and the slight funk he was already in at the plate.

“I think, if I recall, he wasn’t lighting the world on fire right before,” Roberts said. “And then you take a couple days where you’re just being a husband and a father. So the timing, out of sync, makes sense. It takes time and hopefully he’s turned a corner.”

KERSHAW TWO

Left-hander Clayton Kershaw is scheduled to continue his minor-league injury-rehabilitation assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City by making two starts in the next week – Tuesday and Sunday (on four days of rest).

Kershaw will try to stretch out to five innings or 75 pitches on Tuesday.

Recovering from foot and knee surgeries last November, Kershaw has made two rehab starts, one with OKC and the other with Double-A Tulsa. He pitched three scoreless innings for OKC then allowed one run in three innings for Tulsa.

Kershaw is on the 60-day injured list and not eligible to be activated until mid-May.

ALSO

The Dodgers signed former major-league utilityman Nick Senzel to a minor-league contract and assigned him to OKC. Senzel, 29, was the second overall pick in the 2016 MLB Draft and has played for the Cincinnati Reds, Washington Nationals and Chicago White Sox over the past six seasons. He was playing in the Mexican League this year and batted .591 in 26 games before signing with the Dodgers.