Dave Roberts gave Kyle Tucker a day off on Saturday against the Milwaukee Brewers at home, noting some of his struggles at home as the reason.
"I don't think he even realized it until recently, when people brought it to light, but the fact is the splits are stark, home and road," Roberts said on Saturday. "I don't think we have a reason behind it. Yeah, I wouldn't say (he's) fixated on it, but now he's conscious of it."
Roberts noted that it's easy to tell that Tucker is showing signs of frustration at home. He noted that Tucker is a guy who does not show a lot of emotion, but he is showing some emotion after failing to see results in at-bats at home.
Tucker is slashing .192/.290/.276 at Dodger Stadium this year and has just two home runs. On the road, he is playing like the superstar he has shown he can be. He has an .840 OPS on the road and nine home runs. This is the second straight season Tucker has had such drastic differences in his home and away splits.
Last season, at Wrigley Field, he had a .236/.353/.395 slash line with seven home runs. On the road, he had a .292/.399/.524 slash line and hit 15 long balls. Going back to his days with the Houston Astros, he had pretty stark differences in his home and away splits, but his numbers were still great, regardless of venue.
The issue now is that he is not playing well at home. There seems to be no reason for the problems at Dodger Stadium. It is a hitter-friendly ballpark, and he should also have the benefit of teams not being able to pitch around him thanks to the presence of other superstars in the lineup. However, that is far from the case.
He signed a four-year, $240 million deal in the offseason, and the Dodgers were expecting him to play like a superstar. He has consistently been a 30-homer threat in his career, and after struggling at Wrigley Field last season, many believed he would thrive playing his home games at Dodger Stadium. The venue is one of the best places for left-handed hitters to hit home runs.