With a pair of home runs in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ wild win over the Colorado Rockies, Max Muncy now has a 1.184 slugging percentage in his first 13 career games at Coors Field.
Per STATS LLC, it’s the highest slugging percentage by any player in his first 13 career games (minimum 40 plate appearances) at a stadium since Joe DiMaggio slugged 1.220 at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis.
In his first game at Coors Field — May 21, 2018 — Muncy hit a solo home run in the Dodgers’ 2-1 loss to the Rockies. He then went hitless in six at-bats over the next two games, though they were wins for L.A.
Back in the Mile High City two weeks later, Muncy produced his first career multi-home run game. In nine games (six starts) at Coors Field last season, he batted .269/.367/.846 with three doubles, four home runs and eight RBI.
He’s far and away exceeded that production through four games (three starts) thus far at the Rockies’ home ballpark in 2019. When the Dodgers tore through Coors Field for a sweep in April, Muncy finished a double shy of hitting for the cycle in the series opener.
The 28-year-old enters play Friday hitting .667/.706/1.917 with one double, one triple, four home runs and nine RBI in road games against the Rockies this season.
While Muncy made his MLB debut with the Oakland Athletics in 2015, and appeared in 51 games for the team the following year, his career didn’t take off until a breakout campaign with the Dodgers last season.
Muncy played in 137 games and hit .263/.391/.582 with 17 doubles, 35 home runs and 79 RBI. He led the team in home runs and on-base plus slugging percentage (.973), and was second in RBI.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts voiced confidence Muncy would be able to replicate his success this year. Muncy voiced the same sentiment, noting batters are capable of making adjustments to counters from pitchers.
He got off to a bit of an uneven start, Muncy found his swing in May and carried it over into June. That’s come with also expanding his positional versatility, allowing the Dodgers to play him at second base and therefore create more opportunities for Matt Beaty and Joc Pederson at first.
