Kyle Tucker collects 15th homer, 11th steal

Tucker came up just a triple shy of the cycle, and he has never actually hit for the cycle in his career. In September of last year, he came a double shy of hitting for one against the Marlins. Tucker’s first-inning home run off Brady Singer was his 16th of the season to go along with 69 RBI. He came into this game hitting .193/.300/.369 in 52 games in the second half. He hasn’t been striking out, and he has a 7.2 percent barrel rate over that timeframe, so maybe he can get it going before the playoffs begin.

De Paula takes a seat with veteran Teoscar Hernández at DH and Kyle Tucker in right field to face Cincinnati southpaw Andrew Abbott. The 21-year-old phenom went 0-for-5 out of the leadoff spot on Tuesday and is hitting just .143 (2-for-14) with one homer, three RBI and one steal in five games since being promoted from Double-A Tulsa last week. The fact that he’s hitting some initial turbulence isn’t a surprise at all considering his relative inexperience while facing big-league arms for the first time. He has an extremely bright future ahead of him as an all-around fantasy contributor. The big question is whether he’ll have a spot with Los Angeles once Shohei Ohtani (biceps, knee) is ready to return from the injured list next week.

Tucker’s sacrifice fly in the third inning brought home Tommy Edman to give the Dodgers their first run of the night, but that was just the start of a big night for Tucker. In the top of the seventh inning, Tucker stepped up with the bases loaded and sent a slider from Marlins reliever Cade Gibson 413 feet into the stands for a grand slam, pushing the Dodgers’ lead to 6-1. Tucker has now tallied three hits in back-to-back nights and is slashing .318/.360/.864 in his last seven games.

It took facing a catcher, but Tucker collected his first three-hit game of the second half. He was 10-for-81 with one homer in his previous 24 games, even though he had a nice 13/12 K/BB ratio during the span.

It was Tucker’s first homer since August 8, and just the 12th of the season for the 29-year-old. It hasn’t hurt the Dodgers much, but Tucker has been one of the biggest disappointments in baseball in his first season in Los Angeles with a slash of just .226/.327/.359.

They’ll take a seat against LHP Chris Sale. Alex Call will draw the start and bat seventh for Tucker; this appears to just be a routine day off. Enrique Hernández is playing third for Muncy and Muncy appears to be in some danger of losing at-bats against lefties now that Hernández is back.

Tucker’s miscue Sunday was a little embarrassing, but he had a solid excuse while fighting the sun. Tonight’s drop was just bad, and it was paired with another poor offensive game, this one in Coors. As rough as Tucker’s year has been, he’s been just fine on the road; he came into tonight hitting .275/.371/.469 away from Dodger Stadium. Denver provided no immediate reprieve for him, however, as he turned in his seventh straight hitless game.

With the Dodgers down 4-1 in the ninth, Tucker struggled with the sun on Jackson Chourio’s fly to deep right and had it go off his glove. Probably because of the sun issues, it wasn’t ruled an error, and given the score, it wasn’t particularly costly. Still, it was another brutal game for Tucker, who finished the week 0-for-19. Maybe he’ll get it together in Coors over the next three days.

The apparent day off comes against Jacob Misiorowski, which is something most hitters probably wouldn’t complain about. Tucker did well against the Cubs and D-backs last week and was trending nicely in xwOBA terms for a time, but he’s 0-for-16 versus the Royals and Brewers this week. Alex Call is stating in right field tonight.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is shaking things up by moving Freddie Freeman up to the second spot in the order with Andy Pages following and Tucker in the cleanup spot. Max Muncy and Mookie Betts remain in the middle of the lineup with Teoscar Hernández on the bench.