Dave Roberts Believes the Dodgers Run on Max Muncy
The Los Angeles Dodgers are coming off a perfect homestand and their most impressive win of the season, a five-run comeback that ended in a Max Muncy walk-off grand slam. The Dodgers are up to 19-13 on the year, and are playing great baseball now that (mostly) everyone is back in the lineup.
While you could say just about anyone towards the top of the lineup is important to the success of the Dodgers, manager Dave Roberts decided to single one out. While he said he doesn’t love saying one guy is crucial to the team’s success, he did admit that this team is much better when Muncy is playing well.
“You hate to say that one guy is sort of a key figure,” Roberts said, “but if I had to pick one guy who’s going well, guys feed off Max when he’s going in the batter’s box. And that’s just the truth.”
It’s hard to find the lie in what Doc is saying. Muncy has played in 28 games this season, and the Dodgers are 18-10 in them. When Muncy is out of the lineup, the Dodgers are 1-3.
Muncy enters the weekend series against the Padres as the MLB leader in home runs (12) and slugging percentage (.641). His 1.039 OPS ranks third in the MLB while his 27 RBIs are tied for fifth. And again, he’s missed four games this season, three of them while on paternity leave.
The Dodgers are finally playing great baseball, and Roberts is taking notice. After all the changes this offseason, he knew it would take some time to get things right. But after this last homestand, he feels confident in this team continuing to play good baseball.
“We’re still finding out our personality, our identity and knowing who we are as an offense, as a pitching staff,” Roberts said. “It just takes time to get all the guys in the clubhouse. You go on road trips. You’re hanging out with the guys. You start learning who everyone is. … Once you do that, you start finding your identity as a team. We really did that on this homestand.”
The Dodgers will hope to continue the momentum of the perfect homestand into San Diego, for the first matchup of the year against the Padres. But good news Dodger fans: Max Muncy will be in the lineup.
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