Dodgers Interview: Max Muncy on “Redemption Night”
“Making Mistakes Sucks… But It Felt Really Huge to Atone for That”
LOS ANGELES — For Max Muncy, Tuesday night’s 6–5 walk-off win over the Mets was personal. His fifth-inning fielding error led to a Mets rally and temporarily cost the Dodgers the lead—but Muncy didn’t sulk. He answered back the only way he knows how: with his bat. His two home runs, including a game-tying blast in the ninth, were the emotional turning points in a gritty team victory.
“Really, really good,” Muncy said when asked how that swing in the ninth felt. “Look, making mistakes really sucks, but when you do it when you have a guy like [Kershaw] on the mound, it kind of cuts deep a little bit more. So to be able to atone for that a little bit felt really huge for me.”
Muncy’s second homer of the night wasn’t just a moment of personal redemption—it was a reminder of how dangerous he can be when locked in. “When I’m going well, I’m a really good high fastball hitter,” he explained. “When I’m going bad, I’m not able to get to those pitches. So today was a good day for me. It was just nice to keep us in the game.”
Muncy credited a recent mechanical adjustment for helping him turn the corner. “We found a little something mechanically… my path was just a little bit off. Cutting across a tiny bit, and that’s why some of those balls were going foul. Some of it was just bad luck—round bat, round ball—it’s going to happen. But it’s been a good last couple games.”
Even before the hot streak, Muncy said he felt like he was close. “I told you guys—I was hitting the ball hard, just wasn’t getting the results. If I wasn’t hitting the ball hard at all, that’d be a red flag. But I was, and now I’m getting them to go in the right direction, which is nice.”
While his power surge has been a huge lift for the Dodgers’ lineup, Muncy acknowledged how tough it’s been to juggle his defensive struggles with his offensive goals. “You’ve got to focus on both. You can’t ignore one. It’s just long days at the field—spending time in the cage, on the field—trying to get better at everything. That’s what makes a baseball season so tough.”
Muncy’s error in the fifth came on a tough in-between hop. “You’re playing in—he’s shown bunt in the past—and I thought I was reading a bounce. I just came up a little too early instead of staying through it. Just a stupid mistake.”
But like Muncy, left-hander Tanner Scott had his own redemption arc Tuesday night. After taking the loss Sunday, Scott came back and delivered a clean 10th inning to set up the walk-off.
“It was a good outing for him tonight,” Muncy said. “Looked like he was locating his pitches. From the side, his stuff looked like it had a little more jump on it. I know the velo might have stayed the same, but it just looked different—like it had a little more zip.”
For both Muncy and Scott, the night was about turning the page, owning the moment, and helping the Dodgers win. “We’re all doing the best we can,” Muncy said. And on Tuesday, their best was just enough.
Have you subscribed to the Bleed Los Podcast YouTube channel? Be sure to ring the notification bell to watch player interviews, participate in shows & promotions, and stay up to date on all Dodgers news and rumors!
