Exclusive | Dodgers know what fan ovation could mean to Kyle Tucker when hes at this low
Kyle Tucker has spent his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers searching for answers.On Friday night at Dodger Stadium, loyal fans will try and give him one. Not with boos.
He’s already experienced plenty of those.Not with another debate about whether or not his $240 million contract is justified.
But with a standing ovation. On Thursday, a social media campaign among Dodgers fans called for Tucker to receive a prolonged ovation before his first at-bat against the Pittsburgh Pirates.It’s an unusual show of support for a player whose nightmare debut season in Los Angeles has gone from disappointing to downright awful. Tucker is batting .232 with 11 home runs, 55 RBIs and seven stolen bases.
His OPS has hovered below .700, his defense ranks among the worst of MLB’s regular right fielders, and until collecting three hits over this final two games at Coors Field this week, he had recently endured an 0-for-26 skid. At Dodger Stadium, he’s been somehow worse. Tucker’s struggles are magnified at home.He’s heard boos from the crowd on several occasions.
He’s dropped routine fly balls.On Monday night in Colorado, cameras captured a visibly emotional Tucker appearing to cry in the dugout after another hitless performance and another error in right field. The frustration was no longer hiding inside his stats.
It was written across his entire face. Eventually, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts decided Tucker needed a break, benching him at home in hopes of clearing the static from a season in which seemingly everything has gone wrong. “He’s probably never struggled like this in his life,” Roberts said earlier this week.Yet Roberts has never stopped believing in his newest superstar. That was evident Thursday night at the Harold & Carole Pump Foundation’s 26th Anniversary Celebrity Dinner at the Beverly Hilton, where Roberts told the California Post exclusively that he hopes Dodgers fans follow through with Friday’s planned ovation.“I ...