Dodger Details: A different angle on Teoscar Hernández’s homer, a pitching plan and more

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PHILADELPHIA – As he took his lead off second base in a ballpark that was about to be silenced, Andy Pages raised his right arm. The movement was innocuous enough in the seventh inning of a postseason game, if not for what happened next. When the Philadelphia Phillies’ Matt Strahm came set to throw his next pitch to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernández, Pages raised his right arm again.

Hernández connected on Strahm’s fastball, driving a three-run home run that wound up being the decisive blow in Los Angeles’ 5-3 win in Game 1 of the National League Division Series.

Internet sleuths quickly shared screenshots of Pages’ arm motion and focused on Strahm, whose glove and grip appeared to be visible to Pages from second base. What information was gathered isn’t exactly clear, though nothing nefarious appears to be at play. Picking up signs, locations and pitch grips from second base is legal, but the Dodgers outfielder denied to The Athletic on Saturday night that he had been relaying signals to Hernández during the at-bat.

TEOSCAR HERNANDEZ GO-AHEAD THREE-RUN HOME RUN IN THE SEVENTH! pic.twitter.com/m5crHQS3BN

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) October 5, 2025

He did acknowledge that he could see inside Strahm’s glove. The veteran Phillies reliever denied that Pages would learn anything from that situation, replying to one person on X, “go watch the game he did the same thing on different pitches,” Strahm wrote. “Oh and if ya know ball you’d know I’ve had my hands up the better part of a decade and have fingers together for all pitches.”

Pages was also on second base for the two preceding at-bats. He did not signal or make any motion with his arm during Shohei Ohtani’s at-bat, when Strahm struck him out looking. Same for Mookie Betts’ at-bat, where he worked a full count and popped up.

The arm motion came on different pitch types. Both times, Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto had set up inside. Both times, Strahm missed his spot. He left a first-pitch cutter well above the strike zone and outside. Then came the fastball, which Strahm said missed its intended spot by 17 inches.

Hernández was all over it.

“I watched videos,” Hernández said after the home run. “(Strahm) likes to go up in the strike zone. I think that’s when he’s stronger. And something up in the strike zone. My first three at-bats I chased a lot of down.

“Not trying to do overswinging or anything like that. Maybe a hit. Try to bring in one run to tie the game. But he left it over the strike zone.”

Maybe it’s much ado about nothing. But a few secrets will be left between these two sides by the time this series is over.

Trea Turner thought he knew how Shohei Ohtani wanted to start his first career postseason start. He, and everyone else in the building. Who could blame him? Ohtani’s first 14 starts on the mound season had all started with a fastball. Given the moment, why would he throw anything else?

Ohtani flipped a first-pitch slider. Turner didn’t stand a chance.

“You have to have these guys honor the fastball,” manager Dave Roberts said. “They hunt locations. They hunt velocities. And you’ve got to keep them guessing. You just can’t be predictable. And I thought yesterday we did a fantastic job of not being predictable.”

The Dodgers handled the top of the Phillies’ order with unpredictable aggression. Maybe that was needed. It is counterintuitive to believe you’ll have success against the likes of Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper by giving them pitches over the plate to hit, but that’s what the Dodgers did. Turner, Schwarber and Harper combined to go 1-for-11 with six strikeouts in Game 1. The Dodgers did so by throwing 53.3 percent of their pitches inside the rulebook strike zone, according to Baseball Savant, up from their season average of 50.7 percent.

Ohtani challenged them. Schwarber swung and missed at seven of the 11 pitches he saw in the strike zone, which, as The Athletic’s Matt Gelb pointed out, is the most times he’s done that in a Phillies uniform.

Ohtani bullied Harper in one third-inning sequence, opening with a 100.3 mph fastball right down the middle that Harper swung through. He followed with another fastball with a near-identical velocity (100.4 mph) and location. Harper just got the bat to it. Ohtani followed with a splitter, one of nine he threw all night. Harper swung and missed, one of 23 whiffs he induced on the evening.

This is a message the Dodgers have been trying to preach for weeks. This is a lesson they surely hope their bullpen can embrace: Trust the quality of their stuff enough to attack opposing hitters in the strike zone.

“Our two teams are very similar,” Roberts said. “We mirror one another. Speaking on the offensive side, I think that when teams, pitchers nibble and get behind, try to be too fine, that’s where offenses like ours and theirs feast.

“You’ve got to go at these guys and attack them in the strike zone. Once they get count leverage, they get better, even better than most hitters do.”

Maybe the Dodgers found a solution to attacking the heart of the Phillies’ order. They could also go the other direction. Blake Snell threw just 44.2 percent of his pitches in the rulebook zone this season. Few pitchers in baseball are better at getting hitters to chase.

“The guys did a good job,” Snell said, laughing as he was asked if the Dodgers had found something to exploit in the strike zone. “I don’t know, they did a good job. I don’t know how to answer that without giving something away.”

The last time Tyler Glasnow was in the bullpen was before he became Tyler Glasnow, essentially. He was lost in 2017 when the Pittsburgh Pirates banished him to relief. It would take a trade to Tampa Bay for the Rays to unlock what makes him one of the most tantalizing talents in the sport.

So, when Glasnow was standing down in the bullpen for Game 1 on Saturday night, there were some things he had to relearn.

Like knowing when to go to the bathroom.

“I was in the bathroom and the phone rang and they yelled my name,” Glasnow said. “I was like, ‘Here we go.’”

The Dodgers had given Glasnow a heads-up in the sixth inning that he needed to be ready for the seventh, allowing him to go through his normal routine. It had been a week since he’d last pitched, so when Glasnow entered, he yanked a few fastballs. His curveball wasn’t the sharpest. Still, he was a necessary bridge for a bullpen still searching for some answers. Glasnow recorded five outs but left the bases loaded for Alex Vesia, who got out of the jam.

They got what they needed out of Glasnow. He will be back and available to start Game 4, if necessary. He’d have his regular rest, and the plan is to start him then.

But is there a temptation to keep him in the bullpen, if necessary?

“As I sit here right now, coming out of the pen the rest of the series is not on my radar,” Roberts said. “But you just never know how things play out. But having him lined up for Game 4 is kind of where we’re at.”

The Athletic’s Matt Gelb contributed to this report.

(Photo of Teoscar Hernández hugging Andy Pages: Chris Coduto / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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