Historic outing from Andy Pages carries Dodgers to rout over Astros

Pages added a two-run homer in the fifth when he crushed a 91-mph sinker to left field off Astros pitcher Jason Alexander.

In an 11-2 game going into the ninth, the Astros turned to catcher Cesar Salazar, and it was much of the same when Pages returned to the plate. He wasted no time on the second pitch of the at-bat to tack on one last run for the Dodgers and accomplish the first three-homer game of his career.

Pages joins Max Muncy as the only Dodgers to hit three home runs in a game this season after Muncy accomplished the same feat against the Texas Rangers on April 10. 

Entering Wednesday's game, Pages had only hit five homers all season and none since an April 13 contest against the New York Mets. Manager Dave Roberts views the offensive outburst as Pages and the rest of the team shifting their mentality and attacking the zone with more aggression.

"I thought today there was just more intent to scare him out of the zone," Roberts said, per MLB.com's Courtney Hollmon. "I thought the swings were with more conviction. It wasn't as much in between ... just a lot less indecisiveness and conviction behind the swings."

To be fair, it is not like Pages had not had some breakout performances before. He has crushed 48 homers in his career, including a career-high 27 last season. 

While relievers Jack Dreyer, Edgardo Henriquez, Kyle Hurt, Blake Treinen, Tanner Scott and Brock Stewart combined to allow one run over the final eight innings after Glasnow's quick exit, they did not have to do much with the offense having its way the entire game.

Shohei Ohtani was even able to snap his shocking 0-for-18 skid at the plate — the second-longest of his career — with a double in the third inning and an RBI single in the fifth.

The star of the game, though, was Pages. The Dodgers had lost five of seven coming in, but his career outing is just a reminder of how many pieces the Dodgers have in place to have success, and that any of them are capable of having a breakout at any point.