Dodgers know what fan ovation could mean to Kyle Tucker when he’s 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 hope the fans show up and support Kyle because, at the end of the day, you want to play well,” Roberts said. “He’s working hard. He’s going through it right now. But for him to get the fans encouraging him, I think that could really trigger something and build some momentum.”

If the past is any indication of what the future could hold, there is a precedent for the fans’ plan.

Dodgers fans did something similar for Mookie Betts during his struggles last season. Last August, a sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium showered the superstar with a standing ovation before his first at-bat. Betts later spoke about how much the gesture meant to him, a reminder that even players with MVP awards and World Series rings can occasionally find motivation in 50,000 strangers telling them they still believe. 

In the Dodgers’ clubhouse, Tucker’s teammates are sending him the same message. 

Miguel Rojas has grown close to Tucker this season, getting to know the person beneath the uniform and the expectations attached to that massive contract.

“Kyle is a player who’s been through it in the past, and I’m completely positive that he’s a guy who’s one swing away from turning things around,” Rojas told the California Post.

If anyone understands how dramatically one swing can rewrite a season, it’s the Dodgers’ Game 7 World Series hero.

“We all know that with one swing of the bat, with one big play, you can change the narrative of everything,” Rojas said. “The year is not over yet.”

Another player that might understand Tucker’s predicament better than anyone is Kiké Hernández. Hernández has endured forgettable regular seasons only to become a different animal beneath October lights, repeatedly authoring postseason moments that transformed months of struggles into footnotes.

“Nobody has doubted him,” Hernández told the California Post. “Everybody struggles at some point. Some struggles last longer than others, but for him, it’s just a matter of — it’s all about one at-bat.”

Hernández knows from experience that it’s only how you play in October that ultimately matters in Los Angeles. 

“It doesn’t matter what type of season you have,” Hernández said. “You have a great October and you help win a World Series, it’s a good season, in my opinion.”

That’s the hope that Tucker can hold on to now. 

He cannot reclaim the first five months of his budding Dodgers career. He can’t erase the dropped fly balls, the boos or the 0-for-26 skid. But with the Dodgers chasing a historic third consecutive World Series championship, he still has time to change what everyone remembers. 

So on Friday night, when Tucker’s name echoes through the speakers at Dodger Stadium, the same crowd that booed him last week will rise to its feet and applaud instead. 

Maybe a standing ovation won’t fix a broken swing or a lack of confidence. 

But one swing can still fix a season and that’s what the Dodgers are betting on.

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