Kyle

Tucker

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.

It appears to be a matchup-based decision with lefty Noah Cameron on the hill for Kansas City. Tucker has shown some real signs of life recently, hitting .298 (14-for-47) with four homers and one steal over his last 15 games. It’ll be Tommy Edman and Teoscar Hernández in the outfield corners for Los Angeles in this one.

It looked like Tucker was going to have the go-ahead homer, as it gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead late in the contest. Edwin Diaz didn’t allow that to happen with another blown save, but it does come in a victory, and it does give Tucker 11 homers on the season.

Tucker was able to silence his boos for just a moment with an opposite-field homer off Javier Assad to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. That would be the last run of the game for Los Angeles, as they’ve now lost five straight and weren’t able to pick up a win in Tarik Skubal’s debut. Tucker also singled to improve his slash to a still-disappointing .243/.341/.381 in his first year with Los Angeles.

Tucker homered off Nolan McLean in the third and made a bid for another in the fourth, hitting a 361-foot fly that was caught in left field. Both were barrels, so he now has 19 of them and nine homers for the season. He still hasn’t gotten hot at any point, but that his strikeout rate is down this month can’t be bad news; he’s fanned just eight times in 69 plate appearances while hitting .250/.333/.383 in July.

Whatever is the opposite of buyer’s remorse could probably define Tucker’s feelings as he visited Citi Field for the first time since considering signing with the Mets this past winter. His Dodgers had a very clean and easy win here aided by Tucker’s eighth inning blast that added some valuable insurance for them. It was his first home run since all the way back on June 27th as he desperately tries to pull himself out of his season-long slump.