{"id":131796,"date":"2025-06-26T06:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T06:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/131796\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T06:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T06:27:10","slug":"max-muncy-gets-help-from-the-rain-then-hits-a-grand-slam-to-lead-dodgers-past-hapless-rockies-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/131796\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Muncy gets help from the rain, then hits a grand slam to lead Dodgers past hapless Rockies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rain came out of nowhere. So too, it seemed, did Max Muncy<\/a>\u2019s infield pop-up.<\/p>\n

In the top of the sixth inning at Coors Field on Tuesday night, Muncy was at the plate with two out and two runners aboard when a sudden rainstorm opened up from overcast skies. Within moments, sheets of rain were pouring down. But as fans scattered for cover, umpires let the at-bat roll on.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMy glasses were pretty full of water at that point,\u201d Muncy said. \u201cWas just kind of praying to put the ball in play.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a full count, Muncy did, launching a sky-high pop-up down the first base line.<\/p>\n

In clear conditions, it would have been a routine catch to end the inning.<\/p>\n

But this time, neither Rockies first baseman Michael Toglia nor second baseman Thairo Estrada could locate the blur of leather as it came hurtling back to earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen rain is falling that thick,\u201d Muncy said, \u201cit\u2019s really hard to look up and find a baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, as Muncy pulled into first base, and teammates Shohei Ohtani and Dalton Rushing came trotting across the plate, Toglia looked toward Estrada, who initially appeared to be calling for the ball. But then, Estrada looked back at Toglia in confusion, neither appearing certain exactly where the pop-up went. At the last second, both instead ducked for cover, turtling with their arms around their heads. The ball landed between them, seemingly startling Toglia after dropping a few feet to his right.<\/p>\n

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In the scorebook, the play went down as a two-run single, representing the first runs in a game the Dodgers<\/a> went on to win 8-1<\/a> \u2014 with the help of a victory-sealing grand slam from Muncy in the top of the seventh.<\/p>\n

But in reality, it was another example of the Rockies\u2019 helplessness in this historically hapless season \u2014 and a comical stroke of luck the Dodgers were more than happy to take.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, I was just happy I made contact,\u201d Muncy said. \u201cThen you\u2019re upset you pop it up. Then you see them kind of scrambling around and you start getting a little excited. Then it drops and obviously you\u2019re happy about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more: Barabak: You can’t separate sports from politics. Just ask the L.A. Dodgers<\/a><\/p>\n

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Entering this week\u2019s trip to Colorado, manager Dave Roberts emphasized the importance of stacking wins against a Rockies team on pace to set an MLB record for losses in a season. He noted how it was part of a softer overall stretch in the team\u2019s schedule, with the Dodgers (50-31) in a run of 12 straight games against teams with losing records.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to beat the teams you\u2019re supposed to beat,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cThat\u2019s just the way it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

In both games in Denver this week, the Rockies (18-62) have aided in that cause. On Monday, Toglia misplayed three balls in a six-run fourth-inning rally for the Dodgers that catapulted them to a series-opening win.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s blunder, however, was even more of an egregious eyesore; even if Roberts and Muncy both described it as a tricky play.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI give Max a lot of credit for just staying in the at-bat, fighting to put the ball in play, to allow for something like that to happen,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cIt certainly changed the momentum \u2026 With no runs [right there], it might have been a different ballgame.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next time Muncy came to the plate, he added to his RBI total in a more traditional way.<\/p>\n

With the bases loaded and two out in the seventh, the scorching hot slugger turned on a hanging 0-and-2 slider and launched his second grand slam in the last three games way out to right field.<\/p>\n

It gave Muncy six RBIs on the night, and a staggering 42 runs driven in over his last 37 games.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNot everyone is swinging the bat well,\u201d Roberts said, a group that most notably includes Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, who went a combined 0-for-nine. \u201cSo to have that production from Max in the middle of the lineup has been paramount.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a lot of confidence right now,\u201d Roberts added.<\/p>\n

Read more: Shaikin: Walker Buehler struggling to rediscover his Dodgers World Series magic with Red Sox<\/a><\/p>\n

The offensive output \u2014 which continued with a towering home run from Michael Conforto in the eighth \u2014 marked one of the few times this year the Dodgers provided Yoshinobu Yamamoto with ample run support. On Wednesday alone, they matched the eight total runs they had scored in his previous four starts this month.<\/p>\n

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It proved to be plenty on a night the right-hander spun a much-needed gem, bouncing back from the 5.23 ERA he had in June entering the night with five scoreless innings that included one hit, one walk and six strikeouts.<\/p>\n

Even at mile-high altitude, his ability to locate curveballs and splitters was particularly sharp, helping him rack up 39 strikes out of 56 pitches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started feeling good last week, and going into today’s game,\u201d Yamamoto said. \u201cAnd then today I was attacking with first-pitch strikes pretty good. I think that was [the biggest difference].”<\/p>\n

The only thing that stopped Yamamoto was the rain, forcing him to make an early exit after a one-hour, 27-minute delay that began immediately after Muncy\u2019s pop-up. But by that point, the sudden showers had already done enough, helping the Dodgers take a lead they wouldn\u2019t relinquish on a routine pop-up the Rockies\u2019 infield lost sight of.<\/p>\n

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Said Muncy, with a laugh: \u201cHit it to the right spot, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.<\/a><\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The rain came out of nowhere. So too, it seemed, did Max Muncy\u2019s infield pop-up. In the top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2405],"tags":[5,167,52,4316,10900,1560,39,815,6998,1532,111,1491,4,1526,168,468,156,1605,313],"class_list":{"0":"post-131796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-colorado-rockies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-colorado","10":"tag-colorado-rockies","11":"tag-coloradorockies","12":"tag-dalton-rushing","13":"tag-dave-roberts","14":"tag-dodgers","15":"tag-freddie-freeman","16":"tag-grand-slam","17":"tag-max-muncy","18":"tag-michael-conforto","19":"tag-michael-toglia","20":"tag-mlb","21":"tag-mookie-betts","22":"tag-rockies","23":"tag-shohei-ohtani","24":"tag-thairo-estrada","25":"tag-the-rockies","26":"tag-yoshinobu-yamamoto"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114748250140683544","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}