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Growing up on the western tip of Cuba, Andy Pages excelled at every sport he played.

He was good at soccer and volleyball, arguably better at basketball. But he loved baseball for reasons that weren’t necessarily limited to the game.

Pages’ father, Liban, a carpenter who had a job repairing wooden boats, helped make his son’s first bats by hand, using leftover lumber given to him by friends. Soon baseball became the boy’s favorite pastime.

“When I was starting to play baseball in Cuba, when things were really bad, there were no bats. There weren't things like that,” Pages said in Spanish. “So he always tried to make me a bat so I could play.

“I became more motivated, and from that point on, we've been playing baseball."

Read more:Clayton Kershaw delivers exactly what the Dodgers need in win over Cardinals

The sport eventually proved to be a way off the island for Pages, who has emerged as one of the Dodgers’ brightest stars in just his second season with the team.

He entered the start of a three-game series Monday in San Diego hitting .288 with 12 home runs and 39 RBIs, trailing only Shohei Ohtani in homers and matching Ohtani for third on the team in RBIs. He’s also tied for second in stolen bases with six and has yet to be thrown out.

If he can stay consistent, he has a chance to become the first Dodger center fielder to hit better than .250 with 25 homers since Matt Kemp in 2011.

Although Pages never played in Cuba’s elite Serie Nacional, the proving ground for stars such as Yuli Gurriel, Yunel Escobar and Orlando "El Duque" Hernández, he became one of the country’s top prospects after hitting .364/.484/.581 in a under-15 league.

That convinced Pages (pronounced PAH-hays) he had a chance to be a big leaguer some day. So at 16, the Athletic reported, he arranged to be spirited off the island alongside Jairo Pomares, another young Cuban star, traveling through Guyana, Curacao and Haiti before crossing in the Dominican Republic. He then waited eight months before the Dodgers signed him as an international free agent in March 2018, giving him a $300,000 bonus, more than 1,500 times the average annual wage in Cuba, according to CiberCuba.

Pomares signed with the San Francisco Giants at about the same time, but while he remains in the minors, Pages’ climb to the majors was steady. He reached triple A by the start the 2024 season. He didn’t stay at Oklahoma City long, however, hitting .371/.452/.694 with 15 RBIs in 15 games to earn a call-up to the Dodgers.

Before his rookie season was over, Pages was a World Series champion. He paid a heavy price for that though, going seven years without seeing his family in person.

Read more:'Big brother, little brother.' How Teoscar Hernández, Andy Pages bond is helping Dodgers

“It was emotional since I hadn't seen them for a long time,” said Pages, 24, who returned to Cuba for the first time the winter before his big-league debut.

His sister, Elaine, a child when he left “was already a full-grown woman.”

“So those memories came back to me, and they were quite — how should I say it? — quite strong for me,” said Pages, who brought his father a few of the machine-made bats he used in the minor leagues.

But if his father provided the spark that made his son a baseball player, teammate Teoscar Hernández provided the help, guidance and mentoring that made Pages an everyday major leaguer.

“He's played in the major leagues for a long time now,” Pages said of Hernández, a 10-year veteran who signed with the Dodgers months before Pages made his big-league debut. “He's been through a lot of bad times. I went through that at the beginning of the season, for example, and last year too. And he's given me advice that's helped me a lot to get through that time.”

With Pages’ family still in Cuba, Hernández has become a big brother as well as a teammate, taking him out for dinner on off days or just getting together to play video games.

“Getting through bad times is sometimes a little difficult when you're alone, when you don't have anyone to help you, to give you good advice, and to make you understand that sometimes things don't happen when you want them to,” Pages said.

And that’s worked out well for Pages. Three games after Hernández returned from a rehab assignment last month, Pages started a streak that would see him hit in 13 of his next 14 starts, including 11 in a row, raising his average 24 points to .293. He’s batting .379 with a team-high 11 hits in seven games this month.

“We try to go out to my house. We go out to a restaurant with my wife, his wife. Just so we can get together, have time to enjoy and not think about baseball,” Hernández said.

Pages isn’t the first player to benefit from Hernández’s mentorship. During his six seasons in Toronto, Hernández took another talented rookie, fellow Dominican Vladimir Guerrero Jr., under his wing. Guerrero is now a four-time All-Star.

Hernández is still so respected in Toronto when the Dodgers played there last season, some Blue Jays players wore his old uniform number during batting practice. Earlier this year Guerrero offered to buy him a $300,000 Richard Mille watch; Hernández joked he’d rather have money instead.

Read more:Will Dodgers' pitchers ever get healthy? How the team is tackling its biggest problem

As the quiet Pages has grown more confident and comfortable with the Dodgers, his play has improved. A speedy outfielder with a plus arm, he also can play all three positions.

And while he left Cuba, he never fully left it behind, having expressed interest in representing the country in next year’s World Baseball Classic. The decision to go to the Dominican Republic as a teenager, after all, was a business one, not a personal one.

Pages would also like to bring his family to U.S. some day, though that dream was dealt a setback last week when President Trump signed an executive order restricting access to Cubans hoping to come to the U.S.

“Hope is always there,” said Pages, who has beaten impossibly long odds once. “But you have to follow the rules, get the papers, do whatever it takes to make sure everything's OK. And then get here and stay here.

“I’m just trying, trying until they can leave.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Krukow pinpoints key differences in Giants amid five-game win streak originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Giants have found new life since San Francisco’s president of baseball operations Buster Posey’sdrastic roster shakeup. 

And Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow, in talking to KNBR’s “Murph and Markus” on Monday, pinpointed exactly what’s behind the team’s five-game win streak.

“This team has the bullpen to win all those games,” Krukow told Brian Murphy and Markus Boucher. “When you get into a one-run ballgame, whether it’s on the road or whether it’s at home, it really makes no difference because you have to be really good to win those games.” 

As it stands, the Giants are sitting at a season-high 10 games above .500 after improving to 38-28, with both San Francisco and the San Diego Padres sitting one game behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers in a tight National League West race.

And even though the Giants recently adopted a torturous– yet historic –path to victory, Krukow acknowledges the key differences powering San Francisco’s much-needed second wind.

“You have to be a good defensive team,” Krukow added. “You have to have a good bullpen that could throw strikes. You have to have a bullpen that has balls to challenge and get ahead in the count. 

“And you have to have the belief on your bench that you’ll find a way to score, finding ways to win. From wild pitches to just heads-up plays on defense to sac flies. Your little things they’re doing right now. That’s how you have to win those games.” 

With a 5-0 record since Wednesday’s flurry of roster moves and a roaring Oracle Park behind them, Krukow knows a mindset change also is behind the Giants’ newfound momentum.

“So, when you have that type of confidence, when you’re in the last three innings of the game and you have to play your best baseball, there’s pressure on the other team to match you,” Krukow concluded.

“Right now, they’re not feeling that pressure. They’re loose. They’re free. They’re confident. That’s the difference.”

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Krukow ‘appalled' by bizarre fan incident in Giants-Braves game originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

You never know what you’re going to see at the ballpark on any given day — both good and bad.

In the top of the fourth inning of Friday’s Giants vs. Atlanta Braves game at Oracle Park, a fan from one of the top levels of the stadium seemingly threw a baseball onto the field near home plate as a play at the plate unfolded, causing confusion by both teams and broadcasters Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow, who expressed their bewilderment on the call below.

Krukow joined KNBR 680’s “Murph & Markus” on Monday morning, where he was asked about the odd incident and if he’s ever seen anything like it in his 48 combined years as an MLB player and broadcaster.

“No, I’ve never seen that before in San Francisco,” Krukow said. “I’ve seen balls come out of the upper deck on the road. I’ve seen bottles come out of the upper deck on the road.

“I was appalled by it and it almost hit Andy Fletcher the home plate umpire in the head, it was about three feet from him. I don’t know if it was a rubber ball or a hard ball, I don’t know, but you’re just not used to it in our ballpark. Northern California fans get it.

“And as upsetting as it was, you come to the ballpark, and I don’t ever expect to see it again. I don’t think we’re getting into a scenario where you’re going to see it on a regular basis. It shocked everybody and everybody was upset by it. I just don’t think it’s something we have to worry about. Hopefully that’s the case. But wherever that clown is today, shame on you.”

Fortunately, the ball did not hit anyone on the field of play, but as Krukow pointed out, it did almost hit home plate umpire Andy Fletcher.

Giants manager Bob Melvin told reporters before Saturday’s game that the Giants had yet to identify the fan who threw the baseball.

“I heard they didn’t get it, that it came out of the upper deck and the cameras weren’t shooting that high,” Melvin said. “Hope it doesn’t happen again.”

The Giants have not provided any update as of Monday morning.

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Ron Washington took a page out of the characterized version of himself from the 2011 film “Moneyball” when asked about how difficult it would be to revive the Angels’ sputtering offense.

“It’s hard,” the Angels manager said Friday. “It’s very hard.”

His response probably sounds familiar to "Moneyball" fans. In the film, the version of Washington, played by actor Brett Jennings, visits Scott Hatteberg — portrayed by Chris Pratt — at his home. Billy Beane — played by Brad Pitt — and Washington try to sell Hatteberg, a free-agent catcher with the yips, on playing first base.

“You don’t know how to play first base,” Beane says.

“That’s right,” Hatteberg replies.

“It’s not that hard, Scott. Tell em, Wash,” Beane quips.

“It’s incredibly hard,” Washington responds.

Read more:Angels can't pull off sweep, striking out 18 times in loss to Mariners

Finding ways to improve the Angels' productivity at the plate could prove even more daunting. They have the second-most strikeouts (622) and second-fewest walks (163) in MLB. Washington understands it's a problem, but acknowledges the solution isn't easily attainable.

“Adjustments is something in the game of baseball that's never ending, so we just got to keep making adjustments,” Washington said. “That's it. If I knew, if anybody knew the adjustment to make to get an offense going, you would never see offense putter. That's baseball. You just got to keep adjusting, readjusting, adjusting, readjusting, adjusting, readjusting, adjusting, readjusting.”

The Angels held the third-worst batting average (.229) and fourth-worst on-base percentage (.301) in MLB a year ago. Three months into the 2025 season, they’ve regressed. The team’s batting average stands at .225 heading into Monday and the team’s on-base percentage is considerably lower over last year at .287.

During the Angels’ eight-game winning streak in May, it seemed as if hitting coach Johnny Washington — in his second year with the team — discovered something to help the offense click. They tallied a .291 batting average and averaged almost eight runs a game.

The Angels then lost five consecutive games and entered Monday having lost nine of their last 14.

“I think it's come down to guys just continuing the process with trying to simplify guys' approaches, keeping it with their strengths, giving these guys the best chance to succeed versus a given pitcher, and continue the game plan,” Johnny Washington said. “Been doing it all year. There are some youth, but there's a ton of growth taking place. I know it hasn't been pretty at certain times, but it's a great group.”

In their last two series against Boston and Seattle, there were encouraging signs on offense. The Angels scored five or more runs in four of the six games, and cut down on their strikeout totals, with seven or fewer strikeouts coming in four games.

Chris Taylor, who struggled at the plate since signing with the team on May 26, began making hard contact — going two for three in two of three games against the Mariners, homering for the first time this season on Saturday.

Sunday, however, proved to be much different. In the Angels’ 3-2 loss to the Mariners, the lineup struck out a season-high 18 times.

“I think it's kind of just like snapping out of it,” said first baseman Nolan Schanuel on Friday, a day after the Angels returned from a six-game trip in which they averaged more than five runs a game. “We had a good stretch, got cold for a little bit, and snapped out of it and started to hit again.”

Read more:Kyle Hendricks earns win No. 100 and Chris Taylor shines in Angels victory

Infielder Kevin Newman, who has a team-low .200 on-base percentage and a .186 batting average (minimum 50 at-bats) added: “We're pretty streaky, probably more streaky than we'd like to be. We'd like to definitely find some consistency, especially here at home.”

It's no coincidence that the Angels are finding a little more success at the plate with Mike Trout back in the lineup.

Activated off the injured list on May 30, Trout has played as if he wasn’t out for a month with a bone bruise in his knee. He hit .476 across six games against Cleveland and Boston and has gotten on base in nearly half of his at-bats this month (.429 on-base percentage). On June 2 against Boston, the 33-year-old carried the Angels to victory with a three-hit, three-RBI game — hitting his second home run since returning from injury.

“It's good to be able to at least hit and contribute,” Trout said, adding that his time on the injured list over the last two seasons had been frustrating.

Trout's impact isn’t lost on teammate Taylor Ward.

“Having Mike back is — I mean, unbelievable, right,” Ward said. “A guy that can carry the offense.”

Schanuel said he has watched Trout’s daily regimen closely since joining Angels two seasons ago. Ron Washington, who became the Angels' manager last year, said he has marveled at how the three-time MVP prepares and trains. But even he was surprised at how quickly Trout began to contribute coming off injury.

“He still does things that other people on the baseball field can't do,” Ron Washington said. “No doubt about it. You can get a 70% Mike Trout and it'd be 100% of a lot of players in this league. So hey, I was surprised, but then again, I'm not — because we are talking about Mike Trout.”

Even with Trout back, the Angels still have room for improvement. Although he's hitting .241 with 14 home runs and 31 RBIs entering Monday, Logan O’Hoppe has walked just eight times, leading to a .273 on-base percentage. Luis Rengifo holds the second-lowest on-base percentage in the league at .242.

Will Trout's return continue to rejuvenate the Angels' offense and help them close the 5½-game gap to the first-place Houston Astros in the AL West? Time will tell.

“One of the greatest players of our generation,” Johnny Washington said about Trout. “He's been a huge help to our offensive group, to us as coaches and as well to the players"

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Dobbins' bold comments bring welcome jolt to Red Sox-Yankees rivalry originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The iconic Boston Red Sox-New York Yankees rivalry has been largely dormant over the past half-decade. But Hunter Dobbins did his best to revive it over the weekend.

In an interview with the Boston Herald before his start in New York on Sunday night, the rookie right-hander declared he’d rather retire than put on pinstripes.

“My dad was a diehard Red Sox fan,” Dobbins told the Herald’s Gabrielle Starr. “And I’ve said it before, that if the Yankees were the last team to give me a contract, I’d retire.”

Dobbins’ comments raised more than a few eyebrows in New York’s clubhouse.

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge said he was “a little surprised” by Dobbins’ remarks and admitted they were on his mind during his first at-bat against the 25-year-old right-hander Sunday night. New York infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. was a bit more direct.

“I love competitiveness, but to say that, being a rookie, is kind of crazy to me, to say that you’re going to rule out one out of 30 teams to be a professional athlete,” Chisholm told ESPN’s broadcast during a mid-game interview.

When Judge took Dobbins deep for a two-run homer in the second inning, it appeared the rookie’s comments may have caught up with him. But Dobbins settled in nicely, allowing just one more run on four total hits before exiting after five innings. Boston’s bats did the rest, exploding for 11 runs on 12 hits to secure an 11-7 victory and a 2-1 series win over its AL East rival in the Bronx.

Dobbins heard plenty of jeers from the Yankee Stadium faithful after his comments but appeared to embrace the atmosphere.

“I mean, you can’t really say something like that and not expect a passionate fan base like the Yankees to say something,” Dobbins told reporters, via MLB.com. “If anything, it made the rivalry atmosphere feel a lot more fun. I enjoyed it a lot.”

The Red Sox-Yankees rivalry still isn’t what it used to be — not with Boston mired in a three-year postseason drought and sputtering along with a 32-35 record this season (8.5 games behind the AL East-leading Yankees).

But there was a bit of a buzz in the Bronx this weekend, thanks to three back-and-forth, high-scoring games and Dobbins’ pot-stirring comments.

“It adds a lot of spiciness,” Chisholm said after the game. “You enjoy it. You are more locked in as a fan because you know what’s going on. I think it’s fun, at least.”

The Red Sox could use some of that “spiciness” going forward as they aim to climb back into the playoff race — and they’ll have another golden opportunity next weekend when the Yankees come to Fenway Park for a three-game series.