The Los Angeles Dodgers closed out their homestand with a drubbing of the Cincinnati Reds behind 14 runs on 14 hits, led in part by Kyle Tucker.
Tucker and Mookie Betts tied for a game high with three hits, and both hit a homer. Though in Tucker’s case, his solo shot in the eighth inning came against Reds catcher Jose Trevino.
“It still counts, so I’ll take it,” Tucker said of hitting a home run against a position player pitching. The long ball capped off what was an encouraging night for the much-maligned four-time All-Star.
Tucker’s three-hit performance included a line-drive double to straightaway center field that had a 102.6 mph exit velocity.
“It was good,” Tucker said of going 3-for-5. “Barreled some balls up today, stayed to the bigger part of the field and put up some very competitive at-bats.”
It was the eighth time this season Tucker had at least three hits in a game and the multi-hit effort was his first since Aug. 19.
Kyle Tucker’s Dodger Stadium splits
In addition to overall positive development of Tucker’s production is that it came at home. Tucker is among multiple players who don’t have favorable splits at Dodger Stadium this season.
Those ongoing struggles were part of the reason behind Dodgers manager Dave Roberts holding Tucker out of the lineup for multiple games during a homestand in August.
Though, Roberts also noted Freddie Freeman, Betts and Teoscar Herández joined Tucker in oddly struggling at home.
“Freddie’s are pretty stark as well, I think Mookie’s are stark. Teo, I think stark,” Roberts said last month. “There’s a lot of guys that have been pointed out to me, and I don’t know the answer.
“I think with Teo and Freddie, I assume they’ve hit well at home before so it’s maybe an outlier kind of thing and hopefully it sort of corrects itself. With Kyle, I don’t know the answer. We are digging. He says he likes it here when I talk to him, but obviously the performance hasn’t reflected that. But I don’t know the answer.”
Weeks removed from Roberts’ comments, Tucker is still just batting .187/.287/.285 with 12 doubles, four home runs, 22 RBI and a 64 wRC+ over 72 home games.
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