Dodgers News: Muncy Pulled Wrobleski’s Bacon Out of the Fire in Game 7
"Oh man, we we got to get we got to make sure he stays in this game."
LOS ANGELES — In a series in which everything had to fall just so for the Dodgers to win, it only made sense that one of the key plays in Game 7 came when one of the most fiery guys on the team told somebody to… calm down. It came in fourth inning when the benches cleared after Justin Wrobleski hit Andres Gimenez with a pitch. And the way Max tells it, it was as much about being practical as with being a peacemaker.
Of course the trouble stemmed from when it seemed like Gimenez was throwing his hand up in order to try to get hit on the previous pitch. Wrobleski continued to go up and in and on the very next pitch actually did plunk the guy. Which led to… um, words. And though we could all lipread, I will spare you the gory details here because this is a G-rated blog.
“Well, it’s funny,” Muncy recounted in an interview on the podcast Foul Territory. “My first reaction was like, “Hell yeah, don’t back down to this guy. Go get him.” And then immediately I was like, ‘Oh crap, we need him to stay in this game. He’s got to throw some more batters.” So, I was like, ‘I got to get him out of there. We got to make sure he stays in this game.”
That’s when Muncy intervened. He came running from his third base position, and like a bouncer breaking up a nightclub fight, pulled Wrobleski from the fray, keeping him at bay while the Jays players barked at him from across the diamond. Afterward, he got confirmation that he’d made the right move.
Muncy recalled, “The umpires all came up to me and they’re like, ‘If you didn’t get him out of there, we’re probably going to have to toss him.” um you know cuz you know how that goes with the the instigation rules. If you’re the guy that instigates it then you’re usually the one that gets tossed even though even though it’s not your fault.”
As it always seems to happen in baseball, there was a lot of milling about that ensued and the bullpens had to run onto the filled and by the time they arrived, the whole thing was over. But Muncy’s move had saved the day. Wrobleski stayed in the game, and though he gave up a single on a comebacker to George Springer, he struck out the lefty Nathan Lukes for the second out before turning the ball over to Tyler Glasnow to finish the inning. The following day, Wrobleski thanked Muncy for keeping him in the game.
“I talked to him the next day,” Muncy said, “and he was like yeah I appreciate it. Um, you know, at first I think he was a little taken back that I was not letting him get in the fight, but he had that mentality the whole postseason. Every time he pitched, he he was coming after you. He didn’t care who you were.”
Muncy finished with a wide lens. “And, you know, that’s part of part of the things that I love about our pitchers. They start getting that attitude that they’re going to attack you and they don’t care. And it’s the right attitude to have, but sometimes you have to have someone pull you out of there.”
Muncy did. Wrobleski got one more out, and the rest, as they say, is history.
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