The Los Angeles Dodgers and manager Dave Roberts had enough of Andy Pages’ ABS challenges, prompting drastic action.
What the Dodgers told Andy Pages about ABS
Manager Dave Roberts told the media, including Dodgers Nation, that the coaches spoke with Andy Pages about his use of ABS challenges and told him not to challenge any pitches tomorrow.
“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,” Roberts said.
“We did have a conversation today, and we’ve managed that one going forward.”
In a follow-up question, Roberts was asked if he told Pages not to challenge, and the manager had an emphatic “yes.”
Andy Pages’ ABS mistake in Game 1
In the second inning, with two outs and a 2-2 count, Pages took a 95-mile-per-hour sinker in the lower-right quadrant of the strike zone.
The umpire called it strike three, but Pages shook his head in disagreement and tapped his helmet to challenge the pitch.
Upon review, it was well into the strike zone, and it left the Dodgers with one challenge for the next seven innings.
Earlier in the game, Mookie Betts struck out as the first batter with a 3-2 count on a pitch well out of the zone, but because the situation was low leverage, the veteran held back and walked back to the dugout.
Unless the team can pull the game wide open or get a quality starter out of the game, challenging pitches in the first four innings is considered a mistake, even if a hitter is confident in their eye.
Pages has improved his approach at the plate noticeably from 2025 to 2026, but in his first year of ABS access, the outfielder has a track record of making questionable challenges early in the game or on pitches well in the zone.
In fact, things got so bad that the team stopped him from challenging in the second half of the season.
Now, that ban is back in play for Pages.
