Mexico made its final tune-up ahead of the World Baseball Classic against the back-to-back World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers at Camelback Ranch on Wednesday afternoon.
It was a tightly contested matchup between both squads as the fans in attendance — many of whom are both Dodgers and Mexico fans — alternated between chants of “Me-xi-co!” and “Lets go Dodgers!”
It was the Dodgers who would come out on top with a 7-5 win, thanks in large part to a three-run eighth inning sparked by a two-out, ground-rule RBI double by first baseman Joe Vetrano to break a 4-4 deadlock. Mexico rallied in the ninth but ultimately fell short.
Mexico will begin World Baseball Classic pool play on Friday against Great Britain at Daikin Park in Houston.
Here are the highlights from Wednesday’s exhibition game between the Dodgers and Mexico:
Down to their final out, Joey Meneses — pinch-hitting for Jonathan Aranda — turned on a fastball over the heart of the plate from Ben Casparius and lined it on a rope at 109.4 mph into center field for a double. He scored on the next at-bat when a broken-bat chopper hit by Alexis Wilson got past Dodgers third baseman Kyle Nevin and into shallow left field.
Santiago Chávez came to the plate representing the tying run but struck out on four pitches to end the game.
Entering the bottom of the eighth locked in a 4-4 tie, the Dodgers got a much-needed jump-start when Austin Gauthier and the team’s No. 14-ranked prospect, Elijah Hainline, drew back-to-back walks to lead off the frame. Vetrano then gave LA the lead with his ground-rule double into the right field corner.
With two runners in scoring position, Dodgers No. 3 prospect and 2025 Minor League Player of the Year Eduardo Quintero added on with a sacrifice fly to center field. No. 13 prospect Kendall George capped off the big inning with a line drive single into left field that scored Vetrano from second for LA’s third run of the eighth.
Individually, Pages largely had a postseason to forget at the plate. He mustered just four hits in 51 at-bats last October, slashing a dreadful .078/.113/.098.
He had highlights in the field, like his ninth inning catch over Kiké Hernández in Game 7 of the World Series, but his lone shining moment on offense came when he chopped a groundball back to the mound in Game 4 of the NLDS that Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Orion Kerkering botched and threw away as Hyeseong Kim crossed home plate to advance to the Championship Series.
But the 25-year-old slugger has been putting it together this spring, averaging .333 with an OPS of .906 in 20 plate appearances over seven games. And on Wednesday against Mexico, Pages boomed his first longball of the year, jumping on a hanging slider and driving it 430 feet to left field to put the Dodgers on the board first.