LOS ANGELES — To these on the surface wanting in, there have been two variations of Max Muncy this season: one earlier than he started carrying glasses, and one afterward.
Muncy does not deny that his latest run of success on the plate — the place he is rediscovered his energy stroke — began when he started carrying prescription glasses to right astigmatism in his proper eye throughout video games. However he is been hesitant to attribute his turnaround to the eyewear, partly as a result of it will diminish the arduous work that he has put in to get again up to now.
“I feel I am not promoting out to them as a result of it isn’t like I used to be actually horrible for a number of years,” Muncy stated. “It is simply a kind of issues the place possibly it’s due to the glasses, however for me, I wish to belief within the work that I have been doing and I wish to belief in myself that I did not simply herald one thing random and that is what’s serving to me.”
Muncy slugged two homers — together with a game-tying shot to guide off the underside of the ninth — earlier than Freddie Freeman completed the job with a walk-off double within the backside of the tenth, sending the Dodgers to a 6-5 win over the Mets on Tuesday night time.
There was an air of redemption at Dodger Stadium, because the walk-off victory was additionally made potential by a 1-2-3 body from Tanner Scott within the high of the tenth, one night time after he was charged with the loss in extras.
For Muncy, too, there was some redemption in his large swing within the ninth. Though his first homer of the sport capped a four-run first inning, the third baseman additionally made a expensive error within the fifth that set the stage for the Mets to erase a strong Dodgers lead. Starter Clayton Kershaw went on to permit two unearned runs and departed with two outs.
That made Muncy’s ninth homer of the season, and his fifth prior to now 4 video games, that a lot sweeter.
“Making errors actually sucks,” Muncy stated of his ninth error this season. “However once you do it with a man like Kershaw on the mound, it cuts deep a bit of bit extra. To have the ability to atone for that a bit of bit felt actually good for me.”
Stated Kershaw: “That’s a part of being on a group. We simply attempt to decide one another up. Sort of made a tricky play there, no large deal. However he’s swinging the bat superior proper now. Completely satisfied for him. Clearly, it felt good for him to hit that second one, for positive, however it felt good for me, too, to see, in order that was nice.”
Muncy himself has stated it is “arduous to disclaim” that his manufacturing on the plate started to tick up when he began carrying glasses. Though he has near-perfect imaginative and prescient, Muncy realized he was barely left-eye dominant after visiting the identical optometrist that identified Kiké Hernández with astigmatism final 12 months. He wore the glasses in a sport for the primary time on April 30, the day he ended his career-long house run drought.
Earlier than April 30: .180 common, .531 OPS, 5 extra-base hits (no homers), 105 plate appearances
From April 30 on: .277 common, 1.015 OPS, 13 extra-base hits (9 homers), 118 plate appearances
Muncy’s sizzling stretch certainly coincides straight with when he started carrying glasses. However the truth that he was capable of flip his season round in such an enormous method additionally speaks to his psychological fortitude.
“He is needed to undergo some adversities, and it actually hasn’t been linear for him,” supervisor Dave Roberts stated, “whether or not it’s the protection or the droughts offensively and sort of listening to noise from the surface. However he is constructed a pleasant arduous shell within the sense of simply actually attempting to place his head down and hold the blinders on and attempting to give attention to no matter scenario is at hand in the mean time.”
The Dodgers have seen that resilience from Muncy over the course of a season, in addition to throughout particular person video games. Simply as he confirmed on Tuesday.
“For him to reply that method and to dam out the error that he made in that fifth inning was large,” Roberts stated. “To play on this market and on this ballclub, you’ve to have the ability to climate a few of these storms and hold going.”
