Going into Friday’s game against the Washington Nationals, Los Angeles Dodgers left fielder Joc Pederson had been struggling at the plate a bit, going just 3-for-30 (.100 batting average) in his last 12 games.
He did not waste any time breaking out of that slump though, hitting his 14th career leadoff home run to give the Dodgers an early lead against Nationals starter Anibal Sanchez.
Pederson then took Sanchez deep again to begin the fifth inning, marking his 11th career multi-home run game and third this season.
After the win, Pederson explained the reason for his big night at the plate was using Max Muncy’s bat, via SportsNetLA:
“I was scuffling a little bit lately and I picked up Max Muncy’s bat. He’s been swinging it well, it’s got a lot of pop, so I just went with his bat. I don’t know. I guess the rest took care of itself. … I like that bat right now. It’s a good bat.”
This isn’t the first time that a Dodgers player has used a teammate’s bat and found success. Kiké Hernandez hit home runs using both the bats of Cody Bellinger and Chase Utley earlier this season.
Despite the recent slump, Pederson’s start to the 2019 season has been the best of his career. In 36 games so far, the 27-year-old is hitting .229/.336/.606 with 12 home runs, 25 runs scored and 20 RBI.
Pederson has still struggled against left-handed pitching but as far as platoon options go, he may currently be the best in baseball. All 12 of his home run have come against righties while he has posted a 1.056 on-base plus slugging percentage against them in the process.
