Watch the full top of the seventh inning as Los Angeles load the bases against Atlanta in Game 4 of the National League Division Series on 7 October, Andy Pages delivering in the bases-loaded situation to take the lead — the late-inning execution our sports desk singled out in this morning’s Division Series check.
It is worth watching whole rather than as a highlight because the inning, not the swing, is the story. October games at this level turn on the second and third plate appearances of an inning — the walk worked, the count run full, the bullpen decision arriving one batter too late — and the Dodgers’ depth is built to manufacture exactly this pressure until a mistake pitches into it.
Atlanta’s side of the inning, the pitches that loaded the bases before the hit that emptied the argument, is in the footage too. Postseason baseball punishes the almost-good pitch in public, and this inning is a compact lesson in how.
For Atlanta, the inning will be reviewed pitch by pitch this winter: the full counts, the borderline calls, the reliever left one batter long. Division Series are lost in such reviews far more often than in the headline swing, and this footage contains both versions of the story — the rally as Los Angeles built it, and the escape Atlanta twice nearly found.
Video: MLB (official channel). Embedded from YouTube; no download or re-upload. Full Division Series report in Sports.
