The Los Angeles Dodgers have been one of the best teams in baseball over the past several seasons. One of their biggest weaknesses over nearly that entire time, though, has been their inability to consistently hit left-handed pitching.
The Dodgers’ lineup often skewed left, whether it relied on veterans such as Adrian Gonzalez or younger stars like Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger. Even righties like Justin Turner and Yasiel Puig often carried reverse splits.
And once again, Turner is hitting much better against right-handed pitching than he is against lefties in 2019. As a left-handed power hitter, Max Muncy would also seem to be a prototypical righty-masher who struggles against same-side pitching.
However, that has not been the case during his time with the Dodgers. After Muncy had fairly even platoon splits during his breakout 2018 campaign, he is actually fairing better against lefties this year.
Muncy demonstrated that again on Thursday night, lifting an opposite-field home run against Jon Lester in an eventual 7-3 win for the Dodgers.
Muncy has already had some memorable home runs this season, but admitted those that came against a southpaw carry extra satisfaction, as seen on SportsNet LA:
“Yeah, absolutely. Going opposite field is always great because it means you’re not pulling off the ball, you’re not trying too hard. That’s usually a recipe for success. And then left on left, all you hear today is how lefties can’t hit lefties, so when you can do something like that it definitely feels pretty good.”
Muncy has a .299 batting average and .962 on-base plus slugging percentage against left-handers entering play Friday, compared to a .267 average and .889 OPS against rights.
The Dodgers as a whole are hitting .269 with a .889 OPS against righties and .256 with a .779 OPS against lefties in 2019, so their struggles against lefties remain but do not appear as drastic as they were a season prior.
One surprising trend has come thanks to lefties like Muncy and early National League MVP favorite Bellinger, as the Dodgers’ left-handed bats are hitting .281 with an .842 OPS against same-handed pitching.
In 2018, the Dodgers hit .240 with a .733 OPS against lefties, and their lefty bats particularly struggled against them with a .221 batting average and .679 OPS. Manager Dave Roberts’ heavy use of platooning to avoid these matchups drew plenty of attention, and even some controversy, through the 2018 postseason.
However, lefties like Bellinger, Seager and Muncy are proving that this season, Roberts does not need to overhaul his entire lineup depending on who is on the mound.
