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Muncy made the National League All-Star team in 2018, but he's taken his game to another level in 2021. On August 22, 2022, Muncy signed a one-year contract extension worth $13.5 million for the 2023 season, which also included a $10 million club option for 2024, with incentives. He played in 136 games in 2022, with most of his starts at third base after the team acquired Freddie Freeman to play first. Do you throw to Mookie Betts in a 3-1 count with the winning run at second base? Bukauskas walk him with first base open to bring up Max Muncy, a left-handed slugger, and set up a double play? Or do you walk Betts and pitch around Muncy with Justin Turner, a right-handed hitter, on deck?
The Dodgers improved baseball’s best record to 93-42, and mathematically eliminated the Giants (65-69) from repeating as NL West champions. Julio Urías settled in to allow just two runs over six innings. Wilmer Flores’ solo home run trimmed the Dodgers’ lead to 6-2 in the third inning, but the Giants never drew any closer. Urías scattered five hits and collected eight strikeouts en route to lowering his National League-leading ERA to 2.27.
Dodgers’ Max Muncy hits his 100th career home run: ‘It’s a pretty cool number’
The difference between first and second place in the National League West is 14 ½ games. When Betts led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run off Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly, it was the ninth home run the Dodgers had hit in nine innings at bat against the Diamondbacks. Elsewhere, Lux could stand to benefit from the larger bases coming into play next season. The 24-year-old registered just seven stolen bases last season but finished in the 88th percentile in Statcast’s sprint speed metric. With his versatility, if he can double his stolen base output while continuing to see significant RBI opportunities in Los Angeles, Lux will have plenty of fantasy upside next season.
This season, Muncy’s batting average fell as low as .207 before he discovered his pre-finger fracture form on May 9. Of his 11 home runs this season, eight have come in the 20 games since. Muncy needed more time to recover from the fracture than a 60-game regular season allowed. Not until the postseason, Roberts said, did Muncy regain the confidence he needed to turn on an inside pitch without fear. The Los Angeles Dodgers received another complete effort from their lineup to defeat the San Francisco Giants, 8-2, and earn the first road win by either team in the season series. Furthermore, the Dodgers are on a five-game winning streak against the Giants.
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Two innings later, Scott Alexander surrendered a two-run home run to the light-hitting Daulton Varsho. Roberts called the Dodgers’ 10-hit attack Saturday a “clinic.” They struck out only four times. Smith also hit a home run against Clevinger (3-4), his 16th of the season. Mookie Betts went 3 for 5, stole a base, and scored three runs. It was the kind of questionable decision that blows up on teams with records.
Muncy stepped out of the batter’s box and called time before Wood could complete his next windup. He grounded out, waited patiently for a mistake, and finally got one in the sixth inning. The Dodgers never trailed en route to their 13th victory in their last 15 games. Their resurgence has coincided with that of Muncy, whose 2020 season got off to a poor start when summer camps convened last June. Alex Vesia, Joe Kelly, Gonzalez, Nate Jones and Blake Treinen bridged the gap to closer Kenley Jansen, who pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his 12th save of the season.
Dodgers: Max Muncy Reflects On Historic Home Run
The fact that we’re playing really good baseball and we have a really good record right now. Justin Turner and Bellinger were fifth and seventh respectively on the team in plate appearances with runners in scoring position, accounting for nearly a sixth of the Dodgers’ 630 total plate appearances with runners in scoring position last year. In fact, you could make the argument that the presence of Treinen, Vesia, and Phillips only helps Graterol’s save potential as they could be utilized in higher-leverage situations earlier in games. A quick pitch from Wood appeared to catch Muncy off guard in his first plate appearance.
With Trea Turner’s decision to leave the Dodgers and join the Philadelphia Phillies via free agency, it all but solidifies a significant role for Gavin Lux next season. Of course, Lux had a significant role last season with the Dodgers as well, hitting .276 with a .346 on-base percentage, six home runs, and seven stolen bases in 471 plate appearances for the National League West club. Clayton Kershaw is back and the team’s lineup, which led baseball in runs scored last season, should once again be among the sport’s best.
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The Dodgers start the series off against the Braves with an 8-3, come from behind win in Atlanta. Max Muncy led the team tonight with 3 RBI’s, and the bullpen stepped up allowing no runs through 4.1 IP. It was good to see Julio Urias and Adam Kolarek take care of business. Yu Darvish is one of the more dominant pitchers in all of baseball when he’s on, but he’s not getting any favors from home plate umpire Chris Segal. Smith collected his second RBI double of the night in the fifth inning, Turner’s leadoff home run in the seventh extended his hitting streak to 19 games, and Freeman added an RBI single in the ninth for good measure. In the third game of 2018 World Series against the Boston Red Sox, Muncy scored the tying run in the 13th inning and then hit a walk-off home run in the 18th, concluding the longest game in World Series history after seven hours and 20 minutes.
Build your custom FanSided Daily email newsletter with news and analysis on San Diego Padres and all your favorite sports teams, TV shows, and more. Darvish seemingly has an unlimited number of pitches in his arsenal, including at least three sliders if you ask Jazz Chisholm. Yet, when he has to throw four strikes in a single at-bat against an elite hitter like Max Muncy, it’s tough to blame him for a looming mistake. Turner, Freeman, Smith and Muncy tied for the game-high with two RBI each. Turner ended the night with another dazzling sliding catch. Baseball-Reference Bullpen 100,000+ pages of baseball information, How to Contribute, ...
Will Smith was then hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Chris Taylor tied the score with a single. Dodgers starter Andrew Heaney limited the damage against him to one inning, the fourth. It ended with the Padres hitting balls 104, 100, 108 and 98 mph, sandwiched around a fielding error by Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux. Taylor, who like Lux has considerable experience playing across the diamond, has been a quality fantasy option ever since his first full season with the Dodgers during the 2017 campaign. He’s been a quality option for fantasy managers with his ability to collect home runs and stolen bases while possessing eligibility at a number of positions. Throw in his increased run and RBI totals playing for a Dodgers club that has scored the second-most runs in the league since 2017 and you have a player who has been crucial in determining fantasy championships at times.
Freddie Freeman and Will Smith then followed suit with an RBI single and run-scoring double, respectively. Muncy capped the scoring with a solo home run in the sixth inning, an opposite-field shot, off right-hander Dominic Leone in the sixth inning. The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Francisco Giants, 7-2, to become the first team to 100 wins this season. They also accomplished the feat as the fastest team in Dodgers franchise history. Albert Pujols led off the bottom of the inning with a single to lock the Diamondbacks in a bind with no obvious answer.
He has worked for daily newspapers as a sportswriter since 1983, in Southern California since 1987 and at the Orange County Register since 1999. Zach Reks pinch-ran and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. After getting to a cautious 3-and-1 count to Betts, the Diamondbacks opted to intentionally walk him and pitch to Muncy. While he still provided solid home run and stolen base production last season, the underlying data just wasn’t there. Plenty has changed for the Los Angeles Dodgers since the team stepped off the field after their National League Division Series defeat to the division-rival San Diego Padres. Trea Turner, Cody Bellinger, Tyler Anderson, and Andrew Heaney all joined other franchises.
Flashing a cut fastball that touched 96 mph, Jansen struck out two of the three batters he faced. Peters’ homer, a solo shot in the fifth inning, was the first home run of his career. Turner’s home run, his ninth of the season, immediately followed a Mookie Betts triple in the third inning. “Max, I think you could argue, is one of the best two or three baseball players in the game right now,” Manager Dave Roberts said.
Bukauskas left a 2-and-1 fastball over the plate to Muncy who put an end to the game with the Dodgers’ 11th home run of the series. Freddie Freeman is entrenched at first base and will get most or all of the starts there. Second base could be an option for Vargas, though if the Dodgers add a shortstop via trade or free agency, Lux, Max Muncy, and Mookie Betts are all on hand as potential options to see time at the keystone. Third base is probably Vargas’ best bet for consistent playing time, but Muncy could also see a significant number of starts there, as could Chris Taylor. The 24-year-old reliever turned in a strong season for Los Angeles in 2022, logging a 3.26 ERA and a 2.95 FIP in 49.2 innings of work. He didn’t overwhelm with strikeouts (7.79 per nine innings) but allowed just 1.81 walks and 0.54 home runs per nine frames while registering a career-best 10.9% swinging strike rate.
The Dodgers didn’t get another runner past first base until AJ Pollock flared a one-out double into right field in the fifth inning. “Considering what all we’ve been through, I’d say it’s pretty good,” he said. “I don’t know how many injuries we’ve had – 20, 30, whatever the number is.
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