Andy Pages finished the regular season after losing a team-leading 14 ABS challenges. The Los Angeles Dodgers had allowed him 162 games to learn the ins and outs of the ABS Challenge System. But the training wheels have come off in the postseason, and manager Dave Roberts is no longer giving his players multiple chances to rectify their mistakes.
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It became clear when the Dodgers’ manager revoked challenging rights from their star center fielder.
“We talked about Andy’s success rate or lack thereof, and I didn’t revisit it before Game 1 yesterday, so that’s my fault,” said Dave Roberts, per Dodger Nation. “We did have a conversation today, and we’ve managed that one going forward.”
When asked if that meant Pages would not be challenging anymore, the Dodgers manager said, “Yes.”
Back in August, manager Roberts said that he would ban players from using ABS challenges if they repeatedly make mistakes and have trouble understanding the strike zone. That time has finally come for Pages.
Pages recorded a success rate of only 44% on ABS Challenges in the regular season. It ranked fifth-worst among the club’s hitters.
Despite the poor success rate, the Dodgers have not banned him from challenging calls until Pages’ blunder in Game 1 of the NLDS against the Atlanta Braves.
In the second inning on Saturday, Pages challenged an obvious two-strike pitch during his first at-bat. The review showed that the pitch was well into the strike zone, and the original call on the field was upheld.
Pages was struck out to end the inning.
According to the rules of the ABS Challenge System, each team only gets two challenges per game. With their first challenge wasted so early, the Dodgers had to rely on only one challenge for the rest of the game.
Andy Pages recently recovered and returned to the Dodgers lineup after a pitch from the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Bubba Chandler fractured his left hand. The Dodgers activated him on September 21, just in time for the playoffs.
In the only postseason game Pages played this year, the outfielder went hitless in his 4 at-bats against the Braves.