Muncy’s 8 grand slams tied a Los Angeles Dodgers record, along with Mike Piazza. Plus, Dalton Rushing adjusting to the majors, and Emmet Sheehan working his way back to LA soon.
Max Muncy tied his career high with seven runs batted in on Sunday, something he also did three weeks prior. Then on Wednesday night at Coors Field, Muncy drove in six runs to key the Dodgers’ 8-1 win over the Rockies.
Muncy is up to .250/.375/.454 on the season with a 134 wRC+, remarkable considering he was at a 59 wRC+ through his first 28 games before hitting his first home run. The RBI binge — 42 in his last 37 games — has Muncy at 51 RBI through 81 games, one of four Dodgers with at least 50 RBI at the halfway point of the season.
From Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register:
“He’s got a lot of confidence right now,” Roberts said of Muncy. “The at-bat quality each time, it’s just good. He’s seeing the baseball well. Confident. Taking good at-bats. Driving in runs when we need them. Getting big hits. Playing good defense. And we need it. Not everyone is swinging the bat well, so to have that production from Max in the middle of the lineup has been paramount.”
Muncy’s grand slam on Wednesday was his second in three games, and eighth slam with the Dodgers, trying Mike Piazza for the Los Angeles franchise record. Extending to the Brooklyn years, only Gil Hodges has more with 14 grand slams, and Carl Furillo also has eight.
Dalton Rushing walked in the sixth inning on Wednesday night and scored the game’s first run on Muncy’s rain-aided pop-fly single. It’s been a rough adjustment for Rushing in his first stint in the majors, starting 13 of the 39 games since he was called up from Triple-A. He struck out in 20 of his first 38 plate appearances, but since then has five strikeouts in his last 17 trips to the plate, a stretch that included reaching base four time on Sunday.
He talked to Sonja Chen at MLB.com about learning on the job and going from playing every day to only a few times per week.
Emmet Sheehan was perfect for six dominant innings with 13 strikeouts for Triple-A Oklahoma City on Wednesday, and will likely find his way back into the Dodgers rotation soon, either waiting for at least July 4 for his 15 days on option to be up, or earlier if replacing an injured player.
Also from Plunkett at the Orange County Register, “Sheehan ‘absolutely’ belongs in the Dodgers’ starting rotation long term, Roberts acknowledged,” and “‘As we’ve seen with starting pitching, things change weekly,’ Roberts said.”