It took six games for 33-year-old Dodgers infielder Max Muncy, to finally hit his first home run of the Dodgers’ six-game-old 2024 season, but it was a big one.

With his team down 4-3 to the St. Louis Cardinals in the bottom of the eighth inning and Dodgers left fielder Chris Taylor on second base, having walked and stole second and representing the tying run, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts elected to have the more powerful left-handed-hitting Muncy pinch hit for Kiké Hernández as the potential go-ahead run.

It worked.

On a 2-1 count, Muncy absolutely destroyed an 83.9-mph slider from Cardinals left-hander John King, sending it 420 feet into the Pavilion seats in right-center field, giving the Dodgers a late 5-4 lead and eventual final score.

“I feel relaxed and that to me that’s the most important thing. When I’m relaxed, I’m not pressing. I’m able to just see the ball and try to get a good swing on it,” Muncy told reporters postgame.

“It was the epitome of our ball club, you know, the depth, the unselfishness,” Roberts said of Muncy’s heroics. “Everyone realizes, you know, even though you don’t start a game you can comeback and still impact the game, and no better example of what Max did today. Ready when called upon.”

But Muncy wasn’t the only Dodger to “…see the ball and try to get a good swing on it” in that game-changing eighth inning. Prior to Taylor’s enormously huge one-out walk, Dodgers right fielder Teoscar Hernández slugged his third home run in as many days, a one-out solo shot to left-center field, to pull his team to within one of the Redbirds. Although the 32-year-old/nine-year MLB veteran leads the team with 12 strikeouts, his (now) three home runs are second most on the team to only Mookie Betts‘ four.

In a twist of irony, 29-year-old right-hander Nabil Crismatt, who the Dodgers acquired only hours before first pitch, was credited with the win in relief of 25-year-old Dodgers right-handed starter Gavin Stone (5 IP), and 27-year-old Dodgers left-handed reliever Alex Vesia (1.0 IP). The Barranquilla, Colombia native struck out three of the seven Cardinals batters he faced in his two-inning Dodgers debut, doing so on 29 pitches, of which 22 were strikes. He allowed only one hit, a lead off single to left by longtime Dodgers nemesis Nolan Arenado, without issuing a walk.

A word of advice when pitching to Max Muncy: You might want to stay out of his wheelhouse.

…or not.

Play Ball!

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