The celebration was simple. But the relief was immense.
In the bottom of the second inning Wednesday afternoon, on the last day of what had been a torturous opening month to the season,Max Muncy finally did the thing that had eluded him over an ice-cold start.
After 29 forgettable games and 90 infuriating at-bats, the 10th-year veteran finally hit his first home run.
With a lightning-quick swing on a down-and-away, 92-mph sinker from Miami Marlins right-hander Cal Quantrill, Muncy put a long-awaited end to his longest home run drought — and some much-needed life into his slumping start.
His 433-foot solo blast landed high up in the deepest part of the right field pavilion. It sent his Dodgers teammates in the dugout into a frenzy.
And though Muncy did little more than pound a closed fist into his open palm as he trotted around the bases for the first time, it allowed him to finally release the emotional tensions that had been building on the inside.
“Felt really good to have that happen,” Muncy told reporters from his clubhouse locker afterward, finally allowing himself to smile after a season-best game in which he also tripled and drew a walk.
“Just hope today is something to build on,” he added. “It’s been a rough month.”
For much of March and April, there was much amiss in Muncy’s play.
The slugger was batting just .180 entering Wednesday, a troubling mark even for a traditionally low-average hitter. He had struck out 34 times and walked only 14, a master of the free pass going at one point eight straight games without drawing one.
Muncy’s defense, quietly an area of improvement for the 34-year-old last season, also cratered. He has committed four errors at third base, all on errant throws. His advanced analytics have tanked, going from an above-league-average mark in Statcast’s “outs above average” metric last year to the third-lowest grade of any qualified third baseman.
Amid the mounting frustration he even became the subject of a viral social media video during the trip to Chicago last week, captured glaring at a fan who was shouting profanities about him and his family as he boarded the team’s bus outside Wrigley Field following a loss to the Cubs.
“Playing in L.A. is not easy,” Muncy said. “It’s a privilege, and it’s a privilege to play under this pressure. It’s something I’ve always thrived on. But it doesn’t mean it’s been easy, for me or my family.”
The Dodgers’ Max Muncy reacts as he runs the bases after hitting a home run Wednesday against the Marlins.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Nothing about Muncy’s performance raised more red flags than his lack of home runs.
Ever since his successful emergence as a minor-league reclamation project seven years ago, power had been his trademark. Even in stretches when his batting average hovered around the Mendoza Line, or his strikeout total climbed leaderboards, his ability to slug had been the great equalizer.
Entering the year, Muncy’s 190 long balls with the Dodgers ranked top-10 in franchise history. His four seasons with at least 35 were topped only by Duke Snider.
And yet he failed to hit one in his first 28 games. Entering Wednesday he was in danger of going an entire month without a home run, something that never had happened since he joined the Dodgers.
“Pretty puzzling,” manager Dave Roberts said last week of Muncy’s power outage, which also contributed to a slugging percentage in the low .200s. “I know he’s trying to find his way out.”
At the root of Muncy’s woes was a swing he has been tinkering with since the offseason.
Last year the two-time All-Star had one of his most productive seasons. His .232 batting average was his best since 2021. His 141 OPS+ (an all-encompassing advanced offensive metric) trailed only his breakout 2018 performance for the highest of his career. In the National League Championship Series he set a postseason record by reaching base 12 consecutive times.
Despite that Muncy still went into the winter feeling like there was more to unlock. One of the big changes he made was in the type of contact he was chasing. After hitting almost 75% of his balls in the air last season, he felt a lower angle of trajectory might improve the consistency of his production.
“I spent all offseason and spring trying to hit low liners and ground balls,” Muncy said earlier this year, “to try and be on top of the ball.”
The only problem: That mechanical adjustment came with unforeseen side effects.
During the season’s first couple of weeks, Muncy realized he was lurching forward on his swings in an effort to keep the ball down. It not only got him out of his prime hitting position, but also gave him a fraction-of-a-second less reaction time to read each pitch and make the right swing decision.
“The ball sped up on me the first few series of the season and I really wasn’t myself,” Muncy said. “I was chasing a lot of stuff and I was unable to recognize it. It was very uncharacteristic of me.”
So, more recently, Muncy has been recalibrating at the plate. He’s made an effort to stay back in his swing, closely dissecting video of his at-bats to make sure his mechanics remain in sync. He’s rediscovered his feel for the strike zone, recording almost as many walks (12) as strikeouts (13) since his eight-game stretch without a free pass. He reached base 10 times during the Dodgers’ five-game winning streak.
“It seems like he goes through stretches where he’s really scuffling, and he always finds a way to get out of it,” Roberts said.
“The swing feels like it’s getting closer and closer,” Muncy added. “I still have to clean some things up. Have to be better in certain situations. It’s a work in progress. But … it’s just getting the ball to go forward.”
On Wednesday it got the ball to go out of the yard too — helping Muncy finally flash some pop.
“We all know Max is going to be Max,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “For him to get that first one, hopefully the floodgates open for him.”
Freeman was one of several teammates who had an elated reaction to Muncy’s home run, pumping both fists above his head from the dugout. When Muncy finished rounding the bases, Mookie Betts wrapped him in a bear hug, while Teoscar Hernández showered him with a supersized serving of his sunflower seed celebration.
“He got me pretty good,” Muncy joked from his locker.
From a few stalls over, Hernández chimed in: “He deserved it!”
“When you feel the support from your teammates — that elation, that joy — it gets emotional,” Roberts added. “That just speaks to how much it’s been wearing on him. The struggles. And the lack of a homer.”
That latter concern, at least, has been alleviated. And though Muncy’s batting average is still a lowly .194 and his on-base-plus-slugging percentage is still an underwhelming .610, he noted he finally might have “something I can build on” entering May with renewed confidence at the plate.
“It was huge for me, almost a little emotional,” Muncy said. “But this clubhouse is very tight, very close. Everyone cares about each other in here. We all just want to win, and for us to win, everyone needs to be clicking. That’s something this whole clubhouse buys into. So just to get that kind of greeting felt amazing.”