LOS ANGELES — A man of few words, and some modest production so far, Kyle Tucker said plenty with his play on Monday night.
Tucker hit a three-run home run and threw out a runner at home plate from right field as the Dodgers opened a three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays with a 4-3 victory.
Miguel Rojas came through with a tiebreaking pinch-hit home run in the seventh inning, while reprising his Game 7 World Series heroics. It was just the second home run of the season for Rojas and the first pinch-hit homer of the year for the Dodgers.
Home runs were expected to be a regular occurrence for Tucker, but his first season since signing a four-year, $240 million contract with the Dodgers has been a work in progress. Monday’s outburst showed just what the front office had in mind.
“He’s not a very talkative person, but I will say that he, the last few weeks, he’s really opened up with his teammates, with the coaches, and I think he’s freeing himself up, being more comfortable,” Manager Dave Roberts said. “But he cares. He’s working hard, trying his tail off, and he was frustrated, obviously, during the last homestand. So to get back to feeling like you’ve got a fighting chance, I think he’s in a better head space.”
Batting .235, with a .709 OPS that is well below his career mark of .852, Tucker had just five home runs this season when he lined a full-count changeup from Rays right-hander Nick Martinez just over the wall in right field to tie the score after an early three-run deficit.
“You just gotta grind through it,” Tucker said. “We play a lot of games, and you just have to stick with them. It’s not fun but you just gotta keep going.”
Tucker was batting just .188 with a .599 OPS over his last 23 games and was only marginally better this month, batting .205 with a .616 OPS over 12 June contests.
“It kind of happens. We play so many games that it can get frustrating, but you just have to move on to the next at-bat or the next game. … We play a lot of games, have a lot of at-bats. Obviously, you’d like to figure it out from at-bat No. 1 to the end of the year, but it doesn’t always work out like that. You just have to try to be consistent every single day.”
In what is expected to be the final season of his career, Rojas continues to show impeccable timing. His home run in Toronto in Game 7 last fall forced extra innings, where the Dodgers were able to win their second consecutive championship.
There was far less at stake on Monday, although the surprise factor still resonated. Rojas had been dealing with a right ankle/shin injury on the most recent road trip but still was able to drive off his plant leg for his go-ahead home run against Rays left-hander Steven Matz.
“It feels pretty good,” Rojas said of coming through in the clutch. “It’s always a new day, a new opportunity, every time that you contribute to win a baseball game. It’s pretty special, especially with this group that we have right here and with the kind of season that we’re having.”
The Rays were the team in control early when Junior Caminero delivered a two-out, first-inning double and Ryan Vilade jumped on a first-pitch cutter from Dodgers left-hander Eric Lauer for a home run and a 2-0 lead.
Tampa Bay made it 3-0 in the second inning on a squeeze bunt from Taylor Walls that followed a sacrifice bunt from Nick Fortes.
Tucker tied it by himself in the bottom of the second. Mookie Betts led off the inning with a double and Max Muncy followed with a single. Tucker took the count full against Martinez before he lined his game-tying home run just over the wall in right.
Tucker preserved the tie in the top of the third when he threw out Jonathan Aranda at home plate when he was trying to score from second base on a single to right by Ben Williamson.
Lauer settled down to give up three runs on six hits over six innings with three walks and four strikeouts. Kyle Hurt (2-1) pitched a scoreless seventh to pick up the win, while left-hander Tanner Scott pitched a scoreless ninth for his eighth save.
Lauer reached as high as 93.6 mph with his fastball and averaged 91.9 mph on his 38 four-seamers, up 1.2 mph from his season average.
“It’s something that I was definitely working on and something I was hoping to progress toward,” Lauer said of the slight increase in velocity. “I think the small adjustments and refining and syncing things up has really played into that a lot.”
Over his four starts for the Dodgers, since he was acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays last month, Lauer has a 3.22 ERA. He had a 6.69 ERA in eight appearances (six starts) with the Blue Jays before he was designated for assignment.