This story was excerpted from Sonja Chen’s Dodgers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Kyle Tucker didn't hit the ball very hard or very far, but regardless of how it came off his bat, his game-winning hit against the Mets on Tuesday night could be something for him to build on.
With runners on first and second and the game knotted at 1 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Tucker got a 1-2 cutter from lefty reliever Brooks Raley over the heart of the plate and took it the other way, where it dropped into shallow left field for a bloop single. He didn't exactly square it up, with an exit velocity of 56 mph, but it fell for a hit and put his team on top in an eventual 2-1 win.
"It wasn’t barreled like I would’ve liked, but I’m still grinding out at-bats, still taking my walks and stuff," Tucker said. “And to come up with a huge hit right there, get the run and win the game … I’ll take it."
Tucker hasn't quite looked like his usual self at the plate in the first few weeks of the season, going 16-for-67 (.239) with a .693 OPS. He did take one more big swing against the Mets, going deep in his final at-bat of the series on Wednesday night. Midway through April is typically too early to draw any lasting conclusions about a player's performance, but there has been some potential cause for concern in some of Tucker's swing decisions.
Throughout Spring Training, the Dodgers spoke highly of Tucker's ability to get on base and control the strike zone. He's been able to do the former, reaching base at a .350 clip, but he's had some uncharacteristic issues with the latter.
Entering Wednesday, Tucker had a 22.7% strikeout rate, which is considerably higher than his 14.7% mark last year. He is also chasing more, with a 23.2% chase rate, up from 17.6% last year.
"I feel like I kind of get myself out sometimes with certain swings," Tucker said. "I feel like I should drive more like up the middle or gap-to-gap that I end up topping or just fouling off. But at times, it’s just part of the game. It’s still early in the season; we’ve still got five and a half months until we’re at the end of the year."
Tucker has only played in 18 games, so there is plenty of time for those numbers to fall in line with what he's done over his previous eight big league seasons. But like any player who's with a new team, Tucker wants to make a good impression after signing a four-year, $240 million contract, and manager Dave Roberts believes he may be trying to do too much at the plate.
"He's not a guy that typically chases down below, but he's chasing a lot more down below, for me," Roberts said. "... Typically when guys chase, they're trying to do a little bit too much."
Tucker doesn't necessarily see it that way. He knows that he has gotten into some unfavorable counts and expanded his zone as a result, but overall, he thinks that his approach at the plate has been sound. When he does drift away from his approach, he tends to be more selective with his swings -- as he seems to have been doing over the past few days.
"Sometimes you just find yourself chasing more, you just have to try and just narrow your zone a little bit and look in certain parts in the zone, rather than just like swinging at whatever’s thrown," Tucker said. "So I just try to do my best with that and just try to hone on that, and kind of pick my spots on locations where I want and just try to be early with it and try to do a little better job of that."
That approach may have helped Tucker come through in that critical spot on Tuesday. He got a pitch he could handle, and while he didn't get his best swing off, he was still able to put the ball in play and make something happen.
Tucker is capable of much more than small ball, but at that moment, that was exactly what the Dodgers needed from him. And they're hopeful that doing the little things right will help unlock his swing.
"You got a tough lefty, with the game on the line, they walk Shohei [Ohtani] to get to you, and to still hang in there and get a knock was big for us," Roberts said. "And it should be big for his confidence."