Moving Tucker down in lineup pays off for Dodgers in finale win

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Dodgers shook up the top of their lineup, shifting Kyle Tucker down to the cleanup spot and moving Freddie Freeman up to the two-hole for Thursday afternoon's series finale at Oracle Park.

Swapping Tucker and Freeman in the order will be the plan for the "foreseeable future," manager Dave Roberts said, as L.A. looks to get Tucker going at the plate.

"I think it's more of just trying to give Kyle a different look. I think that he's obviously going through it right now and not feeling great at the plate," Roberts said before the game. "So sometimes, the different visual, letting the game come to you a little bit before jumping in there in the two, changes your outlook and potentially the results."

The first look at the new top of the order was promising. After going hitless in the first two games, Tucker went 2-for-4 with a line-drive double and scoring a run as the Dodgers salvaged the series with a 3-0 victory over the Giants, avoiding a three-game sweep.

The consensus top free agent this past offseason, Tucker signed a four-year, $240 million deal to join the Dodgers. He entered Thursday hitting .233 with a .676 OPS in 23 games and has not been the impact bat or on-base machine that L.A. envisioned having behind Shohei Ohtani in its talent-laden lineup.

Freeman entered the finale in San Francisco hitting .299 with an .877 OPS in 22 games, steady as ever to open his age-36 season.

The Dodgers were scuffling a bit as a whole, having lost four of their last five games before Thursday. The offense went dormant in the first two games against the Giants, combining for one run on seven hits before showing signs of life in the finale, plating three runs on seven hits to back eight scoreless innings from Tyler Glasnow. The team would typically look to the 1-2 punch of Ohtani and Tucker to set the tone from the top, but both have been inconsistent.

When it comes to Ohtani, the Dodgers are encouraged by the fact that he has still been getting on base at an impressive clip. He failed to reach safely for the first time on Wednesday, snapping a 53-game on-base streak dating back to last season. For Tucker, the Dodgers have seen him chasing and striking out more than is typical, as well as being indecisive when he gets a pitch in his wheelhouse. That informed Roberts that it was time to make a change.

"I do feel he's trying to do too much," Roberts said. "It's still a prime part in the order, and so I'd like to think that it's not pressure-based, but the reality is that he's scuffling right now. I definitely expect him to come out of it and hit, get on base and do what he's done for many years."

As Roberts said, there is still a lot of responsibility when batting in the cleanup spot. The Dodgers are not considering moving Tucker farther down at this point in time, as not to upset the balance lower in the order, where hitters such as Max Muncy and Andy Pages have found success.

Roberts said Tucker was "agreeable" to the change in a conversation on Wednesday night. After all, he and the Dodgers have the same objective: getting him right at the plate.

“Trying to figure out a way to get him back to being who he is, and the successful hitter that he’s been, is the goal," Roberts said. "So maybe a switch in the lineup, a different outlook, might change that.”