WASHINGTON — Two games into Kyle Tucker’s Los Angeles Dodgers tenure, he found himself giving a speech in front of his new teammates in their home clubhouse.

The Dodgers had just clinched a series win against the Arizona Diamondbacks, in a three-game set that they’d go on to sweep. Before the team’s postgame toast, veteran infielder Miguel Rojas named Tucker the player of the series.

“He gave a really good speech,” Rojas said.

It wasn’t long. That would have been out of character for the fairly reserved Tucker. But it hit the key points: the bullpen’s strong start, second baseman Alex Freeland stepping up in his season debut.

“It’s not like one person wins you any game,” Tucker said in a recent conversation with The Los Angeles Times. “The pitching staff, from the starters to the bullpen, help you out and at least give you an opportunity on the offensive side — and the guys making plays on the defensive side, too, go along with that.”

The need for contributions from all over the roster has been clear already this season, as the Dodgers’ 10-5 win Saturday against the Nationals gave them a 6-2 record.

On the offensive side, the bottom of the order did the heavy lifting early on. And Andy Pages, most often hitting eighth, had a team-leading 1.349 OPS after going 3 for 5 and hitting a three-run home run Saturday. The top of the order broke out Friday, in the first game of a three-game series in Washington.

Tucker’s first week and a half with the Dodgers has already had its ups and downs. For his contributions on both sides of the ball in the opening weekend, Tucker was the right choice for player of the series.

Tucker hit an RBI double in his first game as a Dodger. (Rojas playfully described his celebration as “weak,” saying he needed to involve his hips more in the Freddie dance. “It still needs work, but I’m happy that I’m seeing him smiling and having a good time,” Rojas said.) And in the second, Tucker drew a well-timed walk and drove in the winning run.

His defensive performance included robbing Geraldo Perdomo of a home run in the right-field fence at Dodger Stadium during the third game.

Over the course of the next series against the Cleveland Guardians, however, his strikeout rate climbed to 36%, in a small sample size of 25 plate appearances. He said Friday that he wasn’t necessarily pressing, but tried to swing himself out of the short slump.

It worked on Friday, when he went 3 for 6 and mashed his first home run as a Dodger. Then on Saturday he reached base four times — with two walks and a pair of singles — scored twice and drove in a run.

Tucker, who signed a four-year deal worth $240 million this offseason, has never had to live up to a free agent contract before. But he managed a different kind of pressure last season when the Cubs traded for him to elevate their offense.

“I do think playing for the Cubs and having to be the guy helped prepare him for this moment,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Saturday, “where we’re not solely asking him to be the guy but there is expectation.”

For the first half of last season, Tucker exceeded even those high expectations. By the end of June, he had the sixth-highest OPS (.931) in the majors, despite fracturing his hand at the beginning of that month and playing through the pain.

Eventually, however, being unable to grip the bat with his right hand took a toll on Tucker’s mechanics. Early in his unconventional swing, Tucker lays back the barrel of the bat, which at first glance can make his bat path look long. It works for him because he’s still quick to the ball.

“When he broke his hand, the lay back started happening too much,” Dodger hitting coach Aaron Bates told The Times. “When he breaks his angles and goes too far past, that’s when he gets into trouble.”

As Tucker slumped, so did the Cubs offense, which had been competing with the Dodgers for the best run-scoring group in the first half.

Just when Tucker had fixed that injury-induced bad habit, a calf injury sidelined him for most of September. His 7 for 27 postseason included one extra-base hit, a solo home run in Game 4 of the NL Division Series against the Brewers. Tucker and the Cubs fell two runs shy of meeting the Dodgers in the NL Championship Series.

Five and a half months later, before the Dodgers’ second game of the season, Tucker walked into the dugout and caught part of his new teammates’ ring ceremony.

“I wasn’t here during [the World Series], so in that sense, you’re watching another team’s reward for their success,” Tucker said. “But they earned it. … All the fans know what they expect out of us every day, and what they expect every year out of us. So we’re just going to try to go do it again this year.”

Mookie Betts exits game with injury

Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts left the Dodgers’ game against the Nationals on Saturday with lower back pain on his right side, according to the team.

He walked in his first plate appearance and scored on Freddie Freeman’s two-run double in the first inning. But when the Dodgers took the field in the bottom half of the inning, Rojas jogged out to short.

The severity of Betts’ injury was not immediately clear, but Roberts said after the game he would get an MRI exam on Saturday night and he is unlikely to play Sunday. Roberts said he was “hopeful” it would not be a long-term issue.

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