Max Muncy picked a good time to make history on Thursday night.
Summoned from the bench for a pinch-hit at-bat in the bottom of the sixth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Dodgers’ veteran third baseman flipped the score with a towering three-run, go-ahead homer off right-handed reliever Antonio Senzatela.
That it gave the Dodgers a lead wasn’t even the drive’s most significant detail.
The home run was the 131st of Muncy’s career at Dodger Stadium, pushing him past retired star slugger Eric Karros for most by a single player in the ballpark’s 65-year history.
The record was recognized on the stadium scoreboard the following inning, prompting a prolonged ovation from the Chavez Ravine crowd.
Muncy had been chasing down Karros’ record for most of this season, in which the 35-year-old has had a resurgent, All-Star-caliber campaign.
With 23 long balls this year, Muncy trails only Shohei Ohtani for most on the team. He is also batting above .250 for the first time since 2019, and on the verge of recording his most wins above replacement (he entered Thursday at 3.4, according to Baseball-Reference) since 2021.
Despite that, eclipsing Karros’ mark had required patience.
Muncy sat one homer off the record for a stretch of 59 home plate appearances in July, before finally tying it on July 29.
Since then, he had hit only one more big fly (during a road trip at Wrigley Field earlier this month) while becoming one of several Dodgers hitters to endure a midsummer slump.
Things have gone better on this homestand, however, for both him and the team.
With Thursday’s blast –– which came on the sixth pitch of an at-bat that saw Muncy just miss an earlier home run on a fly ball that sailed wide of the right-field foul pole –– Muncy is hitting 4-for-12 this week with seven RBIs.
It has helped the Dodgers snap out of their funk at large, with Thursday