SAN FRANCISCO — The manner his season began within the batter’s field, Max Muncy realized he needed to discover a rhythm once more. He had deserted his step again transfer with the left leg in a remake of his mechanics. But, all of a sudden, he was pondering an excessive amount of, chasing pitches and struggling to accurately acknowledge what pitchers have been throwing his manner.
Anxiety hit laborious because the Dodgers slugger started 1 for 16, then 4 for 33 as he studied movie and made tweaks – till all the pieces lastly felt proper once more Monday evening. And the tried-and-true transfer along with his left leg, he introduced that again, too.
Muncy hit a grand slam and a three-run drive for his tenth profession multihomer sport, Mookie Betts led off the sport with a homer and Los Angeles rediscovered its energy sport in a 9-1 win over the San Francisco Giants.
“It was kind of one of those things where tough first game of the season got me into a mental rut and my mechanics got out of whack. This was just an easy solution to fix things,” Muncy mentioned. “… I had a lot of tough pitching to start and I was getting out of my mechanics. This is one of those things where it kind of takes it out of my head.”
Muncy hit his third profession grand slam and first since July 1, 2021, towards Washington. His seven RBIs have been a profession excessive along with his earlier finest of 5 performed 3 times, the final on June 9, 2022.
Manager Dave Roberts already deliberate to relaxation Muncy on Tuesday – if a participant hits three residence runs Roberts reconsiders any plan about resting somebody.
PHOTOS: Muncy hits grand slam, 3-run drive, Dodgers beat Giants 9-1
Muncy has 23 residence runs and 51 RBIs in 73 video games towards the Giants.
“It’s a lot of fun,” he mentioned. “Success in general is fun. But it does a little bit more for me when it’s here.”
Julio Urías (3-0) struck out eight, walked two and allowed one run on 4 hits over six innings. The star lefty obtained loads of run help from a lineup that had homered in every of the primary 9 video games earlier than lacking throughout Sunday’s 11-6 loss at Arizona.
Wilmer Flores homered main off the fourth for San Francisco. That ended 13 scoreless innings tossed by Urías since he surrendered two runs on three hits in his preliminary three innings on opening day towards the Diamondbacks.
“Julio set tone for tonight. I thought you could see it with his emotion, his energy,” Roberts mentioned.
Giants ace Logan Webb (0-3) struck out six over six innings however remained winless in a troublesome begin to the yr because the Giants performed their first matchup towards a National League group after going through the AL within the first eight video games.
The Dodgers ended a three-game shedding streak during which they gave up 29 runs within the final three matchups of a four-game collection at Arizona that Roberts chalked as much as not pitching effectively.
Freddie Freeman singled within the third for a five-game hitting streak, whereas Betts added a pair of singles to his second residence run of the yr.
Los Angeles has received 9 of the final 10 NL West crowns, together with eight straight earlier than the 107-win Giants edged the 106-win Dodgers on the season’s last day of 2021.
J.D. Davis had two hits for San Francisco to start a troublesome collection when it’ll face two left-handed starters – with Clayton Kershaw pitching Wednesday’s collection finale.
MUNCY’S MARK
Before he began clearing the fences Monday, Muncy drew a two-out stroll within the first to succeed in base safely in a twenty seventh straight sport in San Francisco – the third-longest streak doing so by a visiting participant behind teammate Freeman’s 31 and Wil Myers (28).
TRAINER’S ROOM
Dodgers: RHP Tony Gonselin, who sprained his left ankle throughout spring coaching drills final month, threw two innings to hitters and one other inning within the bullpen. He will stay on the group’s Arizona spring facility at Camelback Ranch one other few weeks and certain return someday in May together with RHP Ryan Pepiot (indirect pressure).
Giants: C Joey Bart got here off the 10-day injured checklist and C Austin Wynns was designated for project .
UP NEXT
RHP Dustin May (1-0, 0.69 ERA) pitches for the Dodgers having allowed one run on 5 hits over two begins and 13 innings to this point. The Giants oppose with LHP Alex Wood (0-0, 3.00).
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