LOS ANGELES — Kyle Tucker’s first three at-bats produced hard-hit balls that resulted in outs. On his fourth, in Thursday’s seventh inning, Shohei Ohtani broke to second base and Tucker turned on a full-count fastball out over the plate, lining it into the right-center field gap to further pad his new team’s lead. It was precisely how the Los Angeles Dodgers envisioned it when they signed Tucker, the best free agent on the market, to a four-year, $240 million contract in January — except the end.
Tucker attempted the Dodgers’ indelible dance, in which they awkwardly sway their arms and their hips from side to side upon driving in runs, but Tucker got only halfway there. His arms moved, but his hips did not.
“Gotta maybe clean up the celebration thing a little more,” Tucker admitted after his team’s 8-2 drubbing of the Arizona Diamondbacks on Opening Day, “but we’ll have plenty of time to work on that.”
Indeed, it was merely one of 162 regular-season games, the first of what the Dodgers hope are many more wins and many more Tucker-aided runs — but it provided a snapshot of what makes them so dangerous.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto held the D-backs to only a Geraldo Perdomo two-run homer in six innings, using a six-pitch mix to continually keep them off balance. And a Dodgers offense that was held to just two baserunners against Zac Gallen in the first four innings exploded for four runs each in the fifth and seventh, during which it received home runs from Andy Pages and Will Smith and combined for 12 baserunners. All told, the Dodgers cranked out 10 hits, seven of which occurred with two strikes. Ten of their batted balls traveled more than 100 mph, including three from Ohtani.
“It certainly has to be taxing when you’re facing our guys, and when you feel like you have to be perfect,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Just to continue to keep executing and executing, it’s tough mentally, physically. As long as we can be disciplined like we were tonight, we should have opportunities to put up big numbers.”
Roberts began his day by placing a bottle of 90-proof Traveller Whiskey in each of his players’ lockers, an offering to commemorate the start of another long journey. He was upstaged by Ohtani, who gifted each of his teammates and coaches Seiko watches worth thousands of dollars.
“Happy Opening Day!!!” a note on Ohtani’s gift bag read. “Three-Peat!!!”
Throughout Major League Baseball’s prolonged history, only two franchises — the New York Yankees and the then-Oakland Athletics — have three-peated. The Dodgers are looking to become the first to do so out of the National League, on the heels of becoming the first back-to-back champions in a quarter-century. In hopes of doing so, they splurged once again this offseason, signing Edwin Diaz to shore up their questionable ninth inning and adding Tucker to secure their place as the deepest, most talented team in the sport. The hope is that guys like Diaz and Tucker don’t just make their roster better, but that continually adding impact players injects energy into their clubhouse and prevents complacency. Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes saw that show up in spring training, during which he noticed “almost another level of focus from what we saw last year.”
“The biggest thing that we talked about is that last year has nothing to do with this year,” Gomes said, “just like it had nothing to do with the year before.”
To commemorate the start of their season Thursday, the Dodgers aired a skit that ended with comedian Will Ferrell driving a blue lowrider with Miguel Rojas and Freddie Freeman each holding a championship trophy in the back seat. On Friday, the Dodgers will hold their ring ceremony, with Clayton Kershaw, an analyst for the Opening Day broadcast on NBC, also expected to be in attendance.
The players are happy to indulge in the pomp and circumstance, but in their minds, they’ve moved on.
“We obviously enjoyed going back-to-back,” Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts said, “but it’s almost like it’s old news. We’re not really focused on that anymore. Now we’re focused on Game 2. We do a really good job here of just taking it day by day. We know we have a big goal, but the only way to get there is just one step at a time.”
