The trick to adjust baselining works the same in both Pages app and TextEdit app of OS X. This graphic from Wikipedia helps to clarify the differences between the two, subscript on top and superscript on the bottom, from the ‘baseline’, which is the default placement of typed text: You can also use the “Raise” or “Lower” options within the Baseline Font submenu to create more exaggerated superscript or subscript, which can be beneficial for certain fonts where the baseline change is less obvious.
Typing Subscript & Superscript Text in Mac OS X