Max Muncy caps his 3-homer night with walk-off

Everyone trusts Max Muncy to lay off unhealthy pitches. The trick was to lay off carbs.

The Dodgers’ 35-year-old third baseman gave up bread and got here into this season 17 kilos lighter. Older and faster, healthy and prepared to battle for a third consecutive World Series crown.

The best model of himself, having the best of video games when the Dodgers needed it.

He hit three home runs Friday in an 8-7 victory over the Texas Rangers as the Dodgers improved to 10-3 and turned baseball’s first group to obtain double-digit victories.

Muncy’s third long ball — a two-out, no-doubt-about-it, 401-foot solo shot to right-center in the underside of the ninth inning — was the game-winner. He’s the first participant with a three-home run sport that included a walk-off homer since the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Jack Suwinski did it in 2022. He is only the second participant in Dodgers historical past to have a walk-off homer as half of a three-home run sport, becoming a member of Don Demeter, who completed the feat on April 21, 1959, according to Elias Sports Bureau.

Muncy’s first two home runs Friday — Nos. 2 and 3 this season — got here in the second and fourth innings and had been the 211th and 212th in his Dodgers’ tenure, tying and then surpassing Steve Garvey for third-most in the franchise’s Los Angeles historical past.

“It’s just special, any time you hit a home run in a big league game is special, let alone three,” said Muncy, who now has 20 multi-homer video games and two with three home runs. “I still think about the first time I did, so it’s just a special night, and to get the win on top of it was great.”

Muncy and Andy Pages, the Dodgers’ scorching-hot seventh hitter, mixed to go seven for eight and rating seven runs, drive in seven runs and hit 4 home runs. Pages’ big league-leading batting average climbed yet larger, to .449.

Max Muncy hits a walk-off home run to elevate the Dodgers to an 8-7 win over the Texas Rangers at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Together, they stored the Dodgers afloat in a sport that went back and forth, up and down, bobble-head model.

They discovered themselves enjoying from behind for the ninth time in 13 video games, and coming back to win one of those video games for the sixth time. And even though nearer Edwin Díaz blew a save for the first time as a Dodger, he wound up with the win, thanks to Muncy’s ultimate blast.

The nearer served as one thing of a setup man — setting the stage for Muncy to save them in the ninth inning with his fourth profession walk-off home run.

Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow pitched six innings, struck out seven and gave up 4 runs on 5 hits — including two home runs, one of them to former Dodger Corey Seager, whose 409-foot, two-run shot gave Texas a 3-1 lead in the third inning.

Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow delivers in the first inning against Texas on Friday at Dodger Stadium.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Relievers Alex Vesia and Tanner Scott both pitched a scoreless inning before nearer Díaz entered in the ninth, with the Dodgers forward 7-4.

Díaz gave up a single to former Dodger Joc Pedersen and then a two-run home run to Evan Carter that cut the lead to 7-6. Then Ezequiel Duran singled in Sam Haggerty to tie the rating.

“I was talking to some of the guys and they say that perennially that’s what [Díaz] does,” Dodgers supervisor Dave Robert said, acknowledging that his much-ballyhooed new nearer isn’t throwing as onerous as he has in the past. “Starts a little slower and then the velocity starts to creep up. So not too much of a concern.”

Neither is the Dodgers’ knack for falling behind, Roberts insisted.

“I would actually say that’s a good sign in the sense that we keep fighting, and we can come back,” he said. “That’s the sign of a good team.”

Teoscar Hernández tosses sunflower seeds at Andy Pages after Pages hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning against Texas on Friday night.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

With Texas main 4-2 in the underside of the fifth, Hyeseong Kim hit a sacrifice fly to drive home Pages, who had walked and superior to third on Alex Freeland’s single to left, to make it 4-3.

Shohei Ohtani then singled to proper to transfer Freeland to third — and, notably, to prolong his on-base streak to 44 video games, the longest such streak by a Japanese-born participant and the fourth-longest in Dodgers historical past.

Ohtani — who went one for 4 with a stroll and a strikeout Friday — has also reached base on all seven of his Dodgers bobblehead nights.

“He hasn’t really got going yet,” Roberts said. “For us to win the games we’ve won, scored the runs we’ve scored … and Sho isn’t going? He’s going to get hot. That’s a good thing for us.”

This season, the Dodgers decided they needed two video games — Friday and July 8 — to honor Ohtani’s “Greatest Game” with the bobblehead treatment.

On Friday, all 53,675 followers went home with a bobbling figurine of Ohtani at the plate, a memento honoring his efficiency in Game 4 of the NLCS last October. He not only pitched six shutout innings and struck out 10 in that 5-1 NLCS-clinching victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, but he also hit three home runs that traveled a mixed 1,342 ft.

The Dodgers’ Miguel Rojas received’t take bereavement go away or journey back to his native Venezuela following the death of his father, Miguel Rojas Sr., Roberts said before the sport.

“There’s a lot going on in Venezuela,” Roberts said. “And a lot of his family is kind of dispersed around the world, essentially. He just feels they’ve got a handle on it down there, so he’s going to stay with us.”