MILWAUKEE — Max Muncy has been through this before. And he didn’t like the ending that time.
Muncy was hit in the right wrist by a pitch in August 2019. He had X-rays and a fluorsocan which showed no fracture. But three days later, an MRI revealed a small fracture. Muncy went on the injured list for two weeks.
He couldn’t help but think about that when he was hit in the same wrist by a pitch during Friday night’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers.
“For me, I think we skipped the worst, because I’ve been hit in that spot before, and I’ve broken that spot before,” Muncy said after the game. “The biggest thing I always took with me from that was just the nauseous feeling that you get, and I didn’t quite have that tonight. So that’s why I’m feeling pretty optimistic about it.”
Muncy also wears a wrist guard now that he didn’t wear in 2019 and he said he thought the ball caught part of the pad.
“So I think me deciding to wear that wrist guard the last couple of years, it might have saved my wrist, at least tonight,” he said.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Muncy will not play again during the series in Milwaukee and will be re-evaluated when the team returns to Los Angeles on Monday. But “I’d be surprised” if Muncy ends up on the injured list this time.
“I think we’re good right now,” Roberts said. “But once we get to Monday, get back home, I think we’ll see where we’re at to see if we need to get a CT scan on it.”
If Muncy is going to be out of action for at least some time, the Dodgers have a replacement on the way. Kiké Hernandez is eligible to come off the 60-day IL on Sunday.
Hernandez completed his minor-league injury-rehabilitation assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City on Saturday and is expected to join the Dodgers in L.A. and be activated on Monday.
“Absolutely, Kiké will be here on Monday, and then he’ll probably be in the lineup against (Rockies left-hander Kyle) Freeland,” Roberts said. “So it gives us an extra day, certainly, for Max.”
GREEN DAY
The Dodgers’ schedule had Roberts in the same place Saturday as he was 24 years earlier – in the visitors’ dugout at (now) American Family Field.
Roberts was a teammate but not in the starting lineup on May 23, 2002, when Shawn Green had one of the greatest offensive days in MLB history. Green went 6 for 6 with four home runs, a double and seven RBIs. The 19 total bases set a record (later matched by Nick Kurtz of the A’s last July).
“Sean was scuffling before we got here, and then he went 6 for 6, four homers, 19 total bases, maybe,” Roberts recalled Saturday. “They had a lefty on the mound, so I didn’t start (Glendon Rusch didn’t get out of the second inning). So I got to watch Shawn Green have a huge day.”
Twenty-two years later, Roberts was in the dugout for another 6-for-6 day – Shohei Ohtani’s ‘50-50 game’ in Miami on Sept. 19, 2024.
“I think Shohei’s to get into the 50/50 club,” Roberts said when asked to rate the two games. “Shawn’s day was special. …I think Shohei’s was just more dramatic, probably.”
UP NEXT
Dodgers (RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 3-4, 3.32 ERA) at Brewers (RHP Brandon Sproat, 1-2, 5.75 ERA), Sunday, 11:10 a.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM