{"id":870657,"date":"2026-06-16T07:34:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T07:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/870657\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T07:34:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T07:34:24","slug":"miguel-rojas-homer-propels-dodgers-to-series-opening-win-over-rays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/870657\/","title":{"rendered":"Miguel Rojas’ homer propels Dodgers to series-opening win over Rays"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Miguel Rojas<\/a> had practiced his dance moves in the Dodgers\u2019<\/a> dugout Monday, long before he hit the go-ahead home run. Before the game, he strutted around, at one point even grabbing Dalton Rushing, decked in full catcher\u2019s gear, to get hyped.<\/p>\n

Rojas, who pinch-hit for Alex Freeland in the bottom of the seventh and homered to left, was more measured as he crossed the plate without any antics. His veteran steadiness never indicated that he\u2018d hit a pinch-hit home run only one other time in his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels pretty good,\u201d Rojas said. \u201cIt\u2019s always a new day, a new opportunity that you contribute to win a baseball game. It\u2019s pretty special, especially with this group that we have right here and the kind of season that we\u2019re having.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers\u2019 4-3 win over<\/a> Tampa Bay rid them of their middling road performance. The team split a six-game trip, capped by a Sunday loss to the Chicago White Sox, before returning home.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

No one found more immediate success than Kyle Tucker, who temporarily put his .227 batting average on the trip in the rearview mirror. For how long remains a question. Tucker\u2019s season so far has looked more like a teenager testing out their driver\u2019s license: stopping and starting and stopping again. Yet everything seemed to be working when the Dodgers (46-27<\/a>) beat the Rays (41-28).<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to come back and do it again and make it consistent every single day,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cI guess, if it works out for one at-bat, it\u2019s not like I immediately figured it out and everything is fine now. The important thing is, just try to do it every single at-bat. And, over the course of time \u2014 It felt good and everything. I\u2019ve just got to try to do it again tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the five Dodgers who\u2019ve played at least 60 games, Tucker has the lowest batting average (.239). Still, he battled in an eight-pitch duel in the second inning before taking a changeup 384 feet over the wall in right-center. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nice,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cMookie [Betts] did a good job getting that double in front of us, and [Max] Muncy was able to leg that single out. I just had an opportunity, and sitting on the ball right there was huge. Nice swing.\u201d<\/p>\n

His home run tied the score at three apiece, and Tucker wasn\u2019t finished.<\/p>\n

The next inning, the Rays\u2019 Ben Williamson hit a two-out single to Tucker in right field, and Tampa\u2019s Jonathan Aranda darted around third toward home. Tucker lasered a ball to Rushing, who tagged Aranda out on the slide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe play so many games that it can get frustrating,\u201d Tucker said of the season\u2019s ups and downs. \u201cYou\u2019ve just gotta try to move on to the next batter or the next game and do your best with that. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve been trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Miguel <\/p>\n

Miguel Rojas acknowledges the bullpen after homering in the seventh inning.<\/p>\n

(Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

The defensive play helped buoy an otherwise precarious start by pitcher Eric Lauer. The left-hander had been undefeated in three starts with the Dodgers, a large departure from the 1-5 record he had with the Toronto Blue Jays. After starting his year with a 6.69 ERA, Lauer had recorded a 2.76 mark with the Dodgers. <\/p>\n

But inconsistencies plagued Lauer\u2019s start, ranging from the three earned runs he gave up in the first two innings to a pitch clock violation in the fourth. While Lauer eventually settled, the command of his fastball remained absent. He normally crosses the strike zone with 53.7% accuracy on his fastball, getting batters to chase about 37% of the time. In the series opener, Lauer threw his four-seamer in the zone only 42% of the time, cutting his chase rate to 23%.<\/p>\n

In other words, the best pitch in Lauer\u2019s arsenal became one of his worst, and the Rays took advantage. Junior Caminero doubled in the first inning, and Ryan Vilade followed with a home run on a cutter, silencing a sold-out Dodger Stadium before the game could even heat up. The Rays tacked on another run on a safety squeeze, taking the lead until Tucker\u2019s home run. Lauer finished after six innings, giving up the three earned runs, six hits and three walks, striking out four.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe toughest inning for starters is that first inning, to get the flow of the game and to get the feel of what\u2019s working, what\u2019s not,\u201d Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. \u201cMy challenge [to Lauer] was to have that reliever mindset from the outset and be more on the attack and not feel your way into the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay starter Nick Martinez fared about as well. The right-hander lasted 5-1\/3 innings of three-run baseball, striking out six and walking one.<\/p>\n

While there was movement on the bases for both starters, the game lulled until the seventh. A couple of feet separated Rushing\u2019s foul ball from a home run. Reliever Steven Matz didn\u2019t get so lucky with Rojas, who delivered his first homer since April 20. <\/p>\n

Rojas acknowledged that pinch-hitting has been a challenge to adapt to, locating the pitches he can do the most damage on and putting together good at-bats in big moments. \u201cI\u2019ve never been a really good pinch-hitter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After consulting with players such as Jason Heyward and Chase Utley and his former Venezuelan winter ball teammates, Rojas said he feels his mentality has changed and he\u2019s been able to capitalize on more mistakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mentality for us bench players is to be the best players off the bench [in] the league,\u201d Rojas said.<\/p>\n

Espinal to be DFA\u2019d<\/p>\n

To make room for Tommy Edman on Tuesday\u2019s roster in his return after he underwent ankle surgery over the winter, the Dodgers will designate Santiago Espinal for assignment. Espinal had returned to the roster May 29 after being DFA\u2019d that month. He went five for eight on the trip but didn\u2019t play Monday. <\/p>\n

\u201c[Espinal] has been great for us, but the fit right now with our ballclub just doesn\u2019t make a whole lot of sense,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miguel Rojas had practiced his dance moves in the Dodgers\u2019 dugout Monday, long before he hit the go-ahead…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":870658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[72883,20698,1582,276,35123,2442,10713,1910,5949,89616,5605,2961,278685,224,5337,32075,3446,354304,20416,91397],"class_list":["post-870657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-accuracy","tag-ball","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-dalton-rushing","tag-dodgers","tag-foot","tag-game","tag-home-run","tag-innings","tag-kyle-tucker","tag-la","tag-lauer","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-miguel-rojas","tag-other-time","tag-precarious-start","tag-rays","tag-tampa-bay"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116758636407703013","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}