{"id":252381,"date":"2026-04-05T02:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T02:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/252381\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T02:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T02:35:13","slug":"dodgers-offense-stays-hot-as-andy-pages-homers-in-rout-of-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/252381\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers offense stays hot as Andy Pages homers in rout of Nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Two games into Kyle Tucker<\/a>\u2019s Dodgers tenure, he found himself giving a speech in front of his new teammates in their home clubhouse.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers<\/a> had just clinched a series win against the Diamondbacks, in a three-game set that they\u2019d go on to sweep. Before the team\u2019s postgame toast, veteran infielder Miguel Rojas<\/a> named Tucker the player of the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gave a really good speech,\u201d Rojas said.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t long. That would have been out of character for the fairly reserved Tucker. But it hit the key points: the bullpen\u2019s strong start, second baseman Alex Freeland<\/a> stepping up in his season debut.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like one person wins you any game,\u201d Tucker said in a recent conversation with The Times. \u201cThe pitching staff, from the starters to the bullpen, help you out and at least give you an opportunity on the offensive side \u2014 and the guys making plays on the defensive side, too, go along with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The need for contributions from all over the roster has been clear already this season, as the Dodgers\u2019 10-5 win Saturday against the Nationals gave them a 6-2 record.<\/p>\n

On the offensive side, the bottom of the order did the heavy lifting early on. And Andy Pages, most often hitting eighth, had a team-leading 1.349 OPS after going three for five and hitting a three-run home run Saturday. The top of the order broke out Friday, in the first game of a three-game series in Washington.<\/p>\n

Tucker\u2019s first week and a half with the Dodgers has already had its ups and downs. For his contributions on both sides of the ball in the opening weekend, Tucker was the right choice for player of the series. <\/p>\n

Tucker hit an RBI double in his first game as a Dodger. (Rojas playfully described his celebration as \u201cweak,\u201d saying he needed to involve his hips more in the Freddie dance. \u201cIt still needs work, but I\u2019m happy that I\u2019m seeing him smiling and having a good time,\u201d Rojas said.) And in the second, Tucker drew a well-timed walk and drove in the winning run.<\/p>\n

His defensive performance included robbing Geraldo Perdomo of a home run in the right-field fence at Dodger Stadium during the third game.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the next series against the Guardians, however, his strikeout rate climbed to 36%, in a small sample size of 25 plate appearances. He said Friday that he wasn\u2019t necessarily pressing, but tried to swing himself out of the short slump.<\/p>\n

It worked on Friday, when he went 3 for 6 and mashed his first home run as a Dodger. Then on Saturday he reached base four times \u2014 with two walks and a pair of singles \u2014 scored twice and drove in a run.<\/p>\n

Tucker, who signed a four-year deal worth $240 million this offseason, has never had to live up to a free agent contract before. But he managed a different kind of pressure last season when the Cubs traded for him to elevate their offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think playing for the Cubs and having to be the guy helped prepare him for this moment,\u201d Dodgers manager Dave Roberts<\/a> said Saturday, \u201cwhere we\u2019re not solely asking him to be the guy but there is expectation.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the first half of last season, Tucker exceeded even those high expectations. By the end of June, he had the sixth-highest OPS (.931) in the majors, despite fracturing his hand at the beginning of that month and playing through the pain.<\/p>\n

Eventually, however, being unable to grip the bat with his right hand took a toll on Tucker\u2019s mechanics. Early in his unconventional swing, Tucker lays back the barrel of the bat, which at first glance can make his bat path look long. It works for him because he\u2019s still quick to the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he broke his hand, the lay back started happening too much,\u201d Dodger hitting coach Aaron Bates told The Times. \u201cWhen he breaks his angles and goes too far past, that\u2019s when he gets into trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Tucker slumped, so did the Cubs offense, which had been competing with the Dodgers for the best run-scoring group in the first half.<\/p>\n

Just when Tucker had fixed that injury-induced bad habit, a calf injury sidelined him for most of September. His seven-for-27 postseason included one extra-base hit, a solo home run in Game 4 of the NL Division Series against the Brewers. Tucker and the Cubs fell two runs shy of meeting the Dodgers in the NL Championship Series.<\/p>\n

Five and a half months later, before the Dodgers\u2019 second game of the season, Tucker walked into the dugout and caught part of his new teammates\u2019 ring ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t here during [the World Series], so in that sense, you\u2019re watching another team\u2019s reward for their success,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cBut they earned it. \u2026 All the fans know what they expect out of us every day, and what they expect every year out of us. So we\u2019re just going to try to go do it again this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Two games into Kyle Tucker\u2019s Dodgers tenure, he found himself giving a speech in front of his new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[3560,426,10254,4203,63072,423,8356,27978,349,48,52,51,47,50,49,112070,3835,974,112071,595,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-252381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-dodger","9":"tag-dodgers","10":"tag-first-inning","11":"tag-freddie-freeman","12":"tag-full-strength","13":"tag-game","14":"tag-hole","15":"tag-illness","16":"tag-injury","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-la-headlines","19":"tag-la-news","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","22":"tag-los-angeles-news","23":"tag-low-back-pain","24":"tag-mookie-betts","25":"tag-national","26":"tag-new-training-method","27":"tag-saturday","28":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}