Max

Muncy

Muncy singled and walked three times before putting a ball into the second deck in the ninth. That was his 13th homer in 54 career postseason games, and he’s currently 4-for-8 with two homers and five walks in the NLCS. The Dodgers have a 2-1 series lead heading into Game 4 on Thursday. Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jose Quintana are slated to start.

Muncy was scratched from Sunday’s lineup with side soreness. He injured his side while diving for a ground ball on Saturday. Muncy will bat fifth and base third base Tuesday.

Muncy picked up the side injury while making a diving attempt on a ground ball Saturday. The 34-year-old will take a break with Enrique Hernandez getting the start at third base in his place. Consider Muncy day-to-day for now.

It his first five-RBI game of the year. The steal was also his first of the season. Muncy has a .965 OPS since coming back from his strained oblique. He was at .798 in 40 games before getting hurt.

This was a tie game in the ninth before Mookie Betts, after an intentional walk to Shohei Ohtani, drove in the go-ahead run. After that, Teoscar Hernández, Tommy Edman and Muncy hit back-to-back-to-back homers to put the game away. The Dodgers almost had another homer earlier in the inning, but a Will Smith blast somehow stayed in after hitting the very top of the concrete in center, resulting in a triple. Muncy’s homer was his sixth in 80 plate appearances since returning from a strained oblique last month and 15th in 62 games overall.

Muncy will once again sit against a southpaw, as Eduardo Rodriguez takes the ball for the Diamondbacks on Monday. With Muncy out, the Dodgers will have Enrique Hernandez handle the hot corner. It does appear that Muncy isn’t going to play at all against left-handed pitching, which obviously hurts the counting stats, but should help the rates.

It’s the first time that the Dodgers have faced a left-hander since Muncy returned from the injured list, so fantasy managers were curious to see how it would play out. It remains unclear if he’ll sit against all southpaws or if this was just a one-off type of scenario. Enrique Hernandez will cover the hot corner and bat ninth against Tyler Alexander and the Rays on Friday night.

Muncy is hitting well since coming off the injured list. After hitting a homer in each of his last two games, he drove in three of the Dodgers’ eight runs with a pair of doubles against the Mariners. The 33-year-old slugger is hitting .235/.335/.523 with 11 homers and 34 RBI across 179 plate appearances.

The Dodgers also activated Tommy Edman, sent down Andy Pages and DFA’d Nick Ahmed. Muncy is back at third base and hitting seventh tonight three months and two days after suffering a strained oblique. He went 6-for-21 with a homer in six games for Triple-A Oklahoma City. He should get all of the playing time his body can handle, but Enrique Hernández can fill in for him against lefties when needed.

Muncy’s original timeline was Tuesday, but now that Freddie Freeman (finger) is dealing with a finger injury, the Dodgers have a need at first base. Muncy took grounders at first before Sunday’s game against the Cardinals, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if the 33-year-old was lined up there for his return to action Monday against Seattle.