Max Muncy didn’t begin for the Dodgers on Thursday evening.
However he nonetheless discovered a option to make historical past.
Summoned from the bench for a pinch-hit at-bat within the backside of the sixth inning in opposition to the Milwaukee Brewers, the Dodgers’ veteran third baseman belted a towering three-run, go-ahead homer off right-handed reliever Antonio Senzatela.
The Dodgers couldn’t make the lead final, shedding 5-4 after Edwin Díaz’s three-run blown save within the prime of the ninth.
Within the franchise’s report books, nevertheless, the drive got here with a way more important element.
The house run was the 131st of Muncy’s profession at Dodger Stadium, pushing him previous retired star slugger Eric Karros for many by a single participant within the ballpark’s 65-year historical past.
Muncy was acknowledged on the stadium scoreboard the next inning, prompting a chronic ovation from the Chavez Ravine crowd.
Muncy had been chasing down Karros’ report for many of this season, through which the 35-year-old has had a resurgent, All-Star-caliber marketing campaign.
With 23 lengthy balls this yr, Muncy trails solely Shohei Ohtani for many on the staff. He’s additionally batting above .250 for the primary time since 2019, and on the verge of recording his most wins above substitute (he entered Thursday at 3.4, in response to Baseball-Reference) since 2021.
Regardless of that, eclipsing Karros’ mark had required endurance.
Muncy sat one homer off the report for a stretch of 59 residence plate appearances in July, earlier than lastly tying it on July 29.
Since then, he had hit just one extra large fly (throughout a street journey at Wrigley Subject earlier this month) whereas changing into one in all a number of Dodgers hitters to endure a midsummer stoop.
Issues have gone higher on this homestand, nevertheless, for each him and the staff.
With Thursday’s blast –– which got here on the sixth pitch of an at-bat that noticed Muncy simply miss an earlier residence run on a fly ball that sailed vast of the right-field foul pole –– Muncy is hitting 4-for-12 this week with seven RBIs.
