MIAMI — There have been three keys to Kyle Tucker’s first season with the Dodgers – location, location, location.
Tucker had the best game of his season on Friday night – predictably on the road – driving in five of the Dodgers’ runs with a grand slam and a sacrifice fly (to go with a single and a triple) as the Dodgers extended their winning steak to eight games with a 6-2 victory over the Miami Marlins.
The win streak is their longest since April 26-May 3 of last season and it has put them on the verge of clinching a postseason berth and their 13th division title in the past 14 seasons. Their magic number to clinch the NL West dropped to five with the win (though it is functionally four since they have the tiebreaker advantage over the second-place Padres). It also strengthened their hold on the No. 2 seed for the National League playoffs (and a first-round bye).
Tucker’s first season after signing a four-year, $240 million contract has been a disappointment – primarily because his home/road splits have made him an Ice/Road Tucker. In 72 games at Dodger Stadium this season, he has driven into a ditch, hitting a chilly .187 with a .572 OPS.
But Tucker has become a different hitter on the road – the same one he has been for most of his career, batting .273 with an OPS over .800.
Before Tucker’s seventh-inning grand slam, the Dodgers were in yet another one-run game.
Overshadowed recently by the injury drama surrounding Shohei Ohtani (and the additional absence of Freddie Freeman for the past two games), the Dodgers’ chances for a three-peat remain strong because of the quartet of starting pitchers they hope to run out there all October.
Blake Snell was part of the quartet that carried them to last year’s championship and looks even better now that he is healthy this year. He took a shutout into the sixth inning against the Marlins, allowing four hits while striking out eight.
In six starts since returning from surgery to remove loose bodies in his elbow, Snell has allowed a total of four runs in 34⅔ innings (a 1.04 ERA) and held opposing batters to a .126 average while striking out 46 (including eight on Friday). He has allowed no more than one run in any of his starts and three hits or fewer in four of the six.
If there has been a fault to find in Snell’s recent work, it is that his pitch counts have gotten high enough to prevent him from getting deep in games. He has yet to pitch behind the sixth this season and has gone just five (on 99 pitches), six (100) and 5⅔ (101) in his past three.
Evan Phillips replaced him with a runner on and two outs in the sixth and gave up an RBI double to Augustin Ramirez. That made it yet another one-run game as the Dodgers’ offense in its depleted state offered only minimal run support. Tucker drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the third inning, tripled and scored in the sixth.
But in the seventh, two walks and an infield single loaded the bases for Tucker and he delivered the knockout blow, the 10th of his 14 home runs to be hit on the road.
The Dodgers also offered a glimpse into their potential future. Promoted from Double-A to fill Ohtani’s DH shoes, Josue De Paula went 0 for 3 with a walk in his MLB debut. Lauded by scouts for his ability to control the strike zone, De Paula worked full counts in each of his first two times up and saw a total of 18 pitches in his first four MLB plate appearances.
More to come on this story.