The Los Angeles Dodgers saw their season-best eight-game winning streak come to an end against the Miami Marlins on Saturday, but Max Muncy still managed to keep an impressive run of his own going.
The three-time All-Star homered in the first inning as part of a back-to-back effort with Mookie Betts to give the Dodgers an early 2-0 lead. It was Muncy’s 28th home run of the season and second in his last three games.
Muncy has now hit safely in six consecutive games entering play Sunday.
“Closer,” Muncy said on SportsNet LA when asked if he is back where he wants to be offensively. “We were working on some things, and kind of rediscovered some things. Just trying to keep honing on those as we get closer (to the playoffs). Still a lot of work to do.”
Muncy’s adjustments focused on getting his back hip involved so that he could pull the ball more often.
“I wasn’t using my back hip,” Muncy explained. “I was so focused on staying inside of the ball and going to the big part of the field that I was not using my back hip at all. So essentially, I needed to pull the ball more. For all you couch hitting coaches out there, I know that’s never the solution, but it was just trying to get my back hip re-engaged. Things have been happening since then.”
After struggling throughout July, Muncy has been one of the Dodgers’ most productive hitters over the last month and a half. Since Aug. 1, he’s batting .270/.369/.523 with seven doubles, seven home runs and 22 RBI in 35 games.
Munny is hitting an overall .257/.354/.502 with 52 extra-base hits and 71 RBI in 512 plate appearances across 136 games this season.
Max Muncy expected Dodgers to bounce back
Muncy has been key to the Dodgers’ recent offensive resurgence and always believed the team would eventually break out of their slump.
“It’s baseball. You go through stretches that are good, you go through stretches that are bad,” he said. “This has been a good last week overall. Pitching has been great, we’ve been playing good defense, we’ve been hitting the ball well, we’ve been getting a lot of opportunities.
“You go through stretches like that throughout the course of a season. There’s really no way to explain it. It just happens.”
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