The Los Angeles Dodgers are expected to be without All-Star center fielder Andy Pages for at least a month after he was hit by a pitch on the back of his left hand Friday and came away with a fracture.
Pages was plunked by Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Bubba Chandler in the third inning of the Dodgers’ 5-4, 10-inning home victory. He remained in the game until he was replaced in the outfield by Enrique Hernandez in the fifth.
“It’s not season-ending because things like (this) are four to five weeks,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said postgame. “I would expect him back, knowing him, on the earlier side. It will be four weeks, but there is time in the season for him to be back.”
Pages is batting .272 with a .338 on-base percentage, a .458 slugging percentage, 21 home runs and 80 RBIs in 128 games this season.
“I feel for him because he was having such a good season and he likes to play,” Roberts said. “We have to move on and hold down the fort until he gets back.”
The Dodgers had yet to announce a roster replacement for Pages, with the right-handed-hitting Hernandez and switch-hitting Tommy Edman expected to help out in center over the next month.
An All-Star this year for the first time in his third season, Pages is a career .265/.319/.445 hitter with 61 home runs and 212 RBIs in 400 games.
–Field Level Media
