MINNEAPOLIS — The Los Angeles Dodgers escaped a night brimming with potential injury disaster on Monday with an optimistic outlook for All-Star outfielder Kyle Tucker and catcher Dalton Rushing — along with a 2-1 win over the Minnesota Twins that made them the first team in the majors to reach 50 wins this season.
Tucker’s disappointing first season with the Dodgers took a turn for the worse during the bottom of the first inning, with a series of back spasms occurring as he took his place in right field.
“It just lit up,” Tucker said.
He remained in the game for another half-inning and took an at-bat, where he fouled off the first pitch before drawing a walk. His walk raised his season OPS to .707, a mark that ranks 109th out of 152 qualified hitters in the majors.
It was then that manager Dave Roberts noticed Tucker not moving well from first to second base on Tommy Edman’s ensuing single to right field, prompting a pinch runner.
“Didn’t want to put him in any more jeopardy,” Roberts said, “and so I felt it was just smart to just pivot right there.”
Tucker, who signed the richest contract in baseball history by annual value this winter, is not expected to undergo imaging on Tuesday, and Roberts downplayed the team’s overall level of concern.
As Tucker’s back spasms began, Rushing took a foul tip off his mask on Will Klein’s first pitch of the game to Trevor Larnach.
“My head was just pounding the next couple innings,” said Rushing, who was replaced in the third inning by Chuckie Robinson and passed initial concussion testing.
The Dodgers will bring in an extra catcher to Minnesota on Tuesday as a precaution.
For now, at least, the Dodgers have avoided the worst with each, coming out ahead on the heels of solo home runs from Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman and six no-hit innings of bulk relief from Eric Lauer.
At 50-29, the reigning back-to-back World Series champions have the best record in the sport. This, despite a spate of injuries and poor performance, even after another spend-heavy offseason.
Tucker said his symptoms on Monday were better than his previous series of back spasms.
“Last time, it was lighting every couple seconds or minutes,” Tucker said. “Here, it’s just that one time it lit up my whole back, and then after that, (it) kind of calmed down, but it’s super sore and (a) smaller kind of spasms that I felt.”
Tucker, who signed a four-year, $240 million deal, has looked very little like the four-time All-Star the Dodgers signed him to be, not just in production but in approach. He has seen a sizable jump in his aggressiveness on the first pitch, with the sixth-highest year-over-year increase in baseball. Tucker is swinging more in general, hacking at 48.7 percent of pitches he’d seen entering Monday, his highest mark since 2022. He has also chased more pitches than he has at any point since that season.
Tucker’s struggles lingering into late June turned him into a talking point in Roberts’ pregame media session, hours before he exited with an injury.
“No player wants to not perform up to their capabilities,” Roberts said. “I do think that there’s a fitting in part of it. Wanting to perform up to your expectations (is) part of it … For me, I think it’s just wanting him to get back to being who he is as a hitter.”
Perhaps Tucker needs that reminder of who he is as a hitter before opposing pitchers can feel the same way, Roberts posited.
“At the end of the day, when he’s scuffling, that pitcher knows who’s in the batter’s box,” Roberts said. “That’s something that he, Kyle, can’t lose sight of, because that’s ultimately what matters in that one particular at-bat.”
Now it remains to be seen if Tucker is in the Dodgers’ lineup at all.
Tucker immediately went from the basepaths to an extended conversation with hitting coach Aaron Bates, rather than a member of the Dodgers’ training staff. That might be an encouraging sign for Tucker’s health. The only way for him to escape this rut is to remain healthy enough to swing his way out of it.
Rushing’s injury could have suddenly put the Dodgers’ catching situation in a precarious position. Will Smith is already on the injured list with an inflamed disc in his neck that recently required an injection. Smith did not travel with the club to Minnesota and isn’t expected to be an option until at least the Dodgers return from their 10-day road trip that began Monday.
Rushing’s own concussion history, which includes a severe injury he suffered in the minors in 2023 when he was struck in the back of the head by an opponent’s backswing and collapsed when he initially tried to remain in the game, is worth noting.
“The headache’s kind of lingered and went away,” Rushing said. “Take some medicine, pass a concussion test and we’ll move on.”
Rushing, the club’s former top prospect, has held down the everyday duties for much of Smith’s absence. While he’s significantly cooled off from his red-hot April (a .595 OPS through his last 100 plate appearances entering Monday), the organization still saw improvement in how the young catcher has handled the team’s pitching staff.
If Rushing does miss time, the Dodgers don’t have another catcher besides Robinson on the 40-man roster, with Eliezer Alfonzo at Triple-A Oklahoma City as depth.