Scoring the walk-off run on a feet-first slide, Shohei Ohtani leaped up and violently clapped his hands and slapped Dalton Rushing’s outstretched palm.
The player who drove in Ohtani and Rushing in the Dodgers’ 5-4 comeback win over the Marlins on Monday night wasn’t nearly as animated. Kyle Tucker casually high-fived first base coach Chris Woodward and removed his helmet as if he’d made the last out of the second inning.
“Did he smile?” manager Dave Roberts joked.
Tucker finally grinned when Freddie Freeman embraced him. The $240-million outfielder continued beaming as he was mobbed by his team on the infield grass.
Freeman joked, “That might be the first time he smiled all day.”
If you can’t already tell, Tucker doesn’t smile often — or show much of any emotion.
Not as if he’s had much to celebrate.
The purported grand prize of the most recent free-agent class, the $60-million-a-year left-handed hitter is batting just .236, even after his ninth-inning heroics. His batting average and OPS are the lowest of any of the Dodgers’ regular starters, and his early-season slump already prompted Roberts to drop him in the lineup from second to fourth.
Of his walk-off single, Roberts said, “He needed it.”
But Tucker wasn’t visibly excited until his teammates practically forced a smile out of him. How was he feeling inside?
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
