Muncy's fortunes turn for worse
Error in 10th inning costly as L.A. winning streak halted at seven
PHILADELPHIA >> Forty games into the season with a .156 batting average and .610 OPS, there must be times when Max Muncy has thought it couldn’t get any worse. He would have been wrong. Muncy booted what should have been the game-ending ground ball in the 10th inning Sunday afternoon, allowing two runs to score and ending the Dodgers’ winning streak with a 4-3 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Dodgers were one out away from extending that streak to eight consecutive wins in both the ninth and 10th innings. With Craig Kimbrel and Daniel Hudson unavailable (and Blake Treinen on the Injured List), they couldn’t close it out either time.
“Certainly feels that way,” Muncy said when asked if he feels like only bad things are happening for him this year. “But it’s one of those things where, I go out there every day, and I try to at least throw something in the
bucket, try to do whatever I can to help the team win — whether it’s get a walk, get on base, make a play.
“Unfortunately today, I took something out of it. I didn’t add to helping the team. That’s my own fault and I gotta own up to that.”
That bucket was depleted Sunday by a difficult stretch of schedule that has led the Dodgers to ask their relievers to pitch 63 2/3 innings over the past 17 games including 6 2/3 on Saturday. That left Dodgers manager Dave Roberts saying before the game that he would have to “piece it together” out of the bullpen and hoping starter Tony Gonsolin could give them some length.
Gonsolin did his part Hindered by a sore shoulder last season, Gonsolin completed six innings for a second consecutive start, the first time in his career he has gone six innings in consecutive starts.
The right-hander retired 11 of the first 13 Phillies, allowing a single and a walk (but getting a double play). Garrett Stubbs hit a splitter left over the plate for a solo home run to lead off the sixth but Gonsolin struck out the next three batters, finishing his sixth inning with his 90th pitch and dropping his ERA to 1.62 this season.
“I think I’m throwing better pitches with it,” he said of his splitter, a key piece of his pitch mix. “I think I’m throwing more competitive strikes and competitive balls with it,
getting some swings on it that I like to see.
“Being able to throw some off-speed stuff for strikes, getting the heater in there, in the zones that I want it, and getting that early contact, early weak contact ideally.”
The Dodgers’ only offense through the nine innings, though, was a pair of solo home runs by Mookie Betts (his 10th of the season) and Edwin Rios (his fifth in just 47 plate appearances this season).
That left Roberts trying to MacGyver a closer out of the spare parts left in a Dodgers bullpen without veterans Kimbrel (who pitched in the first two games of the series) or Hudson (who went oneplus innings for the first time this season Saturday).
Roberts’ first choice was to ride Yency Almonte for the final five outs. Almonte got a big double play to end the eighth and retired the first two batters in the ninth before Nick Castellanos doubled and Jean Segura lined a game-tying RBI single on a firstpitch fastball.
“One bad pitch,” Almonte said. “I hung that slider. It stayed over the plate to Castellanos and he put a good swing on it. Then I got ambushed by Segura.”
Evan Phillips came on for the 10th and was in trouble when Garrett Stubbs led off with an infield single. The free runner, JT Realmuto, went to third base and beat Freddie Freeman’s throw from across the diamond.
But Justin Turner caught Freeman’s high throw and acted as if it had gotten past him. Realmuto was fooled and Turner tagged
him out.
“Just a heady play,” Roberts said. “(Turner) sold the wide throw really well. A good player in Realmuto but he got him. That was a big out. I thought that was going to be the difference in the game.” It almost was.
Phillips struck out Johan Camargo but gave up a single to Roman Quinn. With runners at second and third, Alec Bohm hit an easy ground ball directly at Muncy, playing second base Sunday. He booted it as two runs scored.
“It was a long, hot day. The field dried out a little bit,” Muncy said.
“That’s something that you know as an infielder. As the day goes on, the field is getting harder and the ball is gonna bounce more and take funny hops. It was a slow-hit ball, I came charging in. Then stopped and didn’t give myself enough space, knowing the ball was gonna bounce higher. Unfortunate circumstance. And then I just couldn’t find the ball.”
His throw home was too late to stop the winning run from scoring.
“It took me too long to find the ball,” Muncy said.
“That’s baseball. Once one day happens, whether it was good or bad, once the uniform comes off, you gotta forget about it and move on to the next day. It’s a brand new day. When tomorrow starts, you’re 0-for-0 at the plate, you haven’t made any problems in the field. Every day is like that. If you have three home runs, the next day you’re 0-for-0. Nothing carries over. So you just gotta forget about it, move on and flush it.”