Max Muncy gets help from the rain, then hits a grand slam to lead Dodgers past hapless Rockies

Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times on Jun 26, 2025

Published in Baseball

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DENVER — The rain came out of nowhere. So too, it seemed, did Max Muncy’s infield pop-up.

In the top of the sixth inning at Coors Field on Tuesday night, Muncy was at the plate with two out and two runners aboard when a sudden rainstorm opened up from overcast skies. Within moments, sheets of rain were pouring down. But as fans scattered for cover, umpires let the at-bat roll on.

That’s when, in a full count, Muncy launched a sky-high pop-up down the first base line.

In clear conditions, it would have been a routine catch to end the inning.

But this time, neither Rockies first baseman Michael Toglia nor second baseman Thairo Estrada could locate the blur of leather as it came hurtling back to earth.

As Muncy pulled into first base, and teammates Shohei Ohtani and Dalton Rushing came trotting across the plate, Toglia looked toward Estrada, who initially appeared to be calling for the ball. But then, Estrada looked back at Toglia in confusion, neither certain exactly where the pop-up went. At the last second, both instead ducked for cover, turtling with their arms around their heads. The ball landed between them, seemingly startling Toglia after dropping a few feet to his right.

In the scorebook, the play went down as a two-run single, representing the first runs in a game the Dodgers went on to win 8-1— with the help of a victory-sealing grand slam from Muncy in the top of the seventh.

But in reality, it was another example of the Rockies’ helplessness in this historically hapless season — and a comical stroke of luck the Dodgers were more than happy to take.

Entering this week’s trip to Colorado, manager Dave Roberts emphasized the importance of stacking wins against a Rockies team on pace to set an MLB record for losses in a season. He noted how it was part of a softer overall stretch in the team’s schedule, with the Dodgers in a run of 12 straight games against teams with losing records.

“You need to beat the teams you’re supposed to beat,” Roberts said. “That’s just the way it is.”

In both games in Denver this week, the Rockies have aided in that cause. On Monday, Toglia misplayed three balls in a six-run fourth-inning rally for the Dodgers that catapulted them to a series-opening win.

Tuesday’s blunder, however, was even more of an egregious eyesore. Even Muncy seemed shocked as he scampered into first base, staring back into the dugout with a look of disbelief.

The next time Muncy came to the plate, he added to his RBI total in a more traditional way.

With the bases loaded and two out in the seventh, the scorching hot slugger turned on a hanging 0-and-2 slider and launched his second grand slam in the last three games way out to right field.

With his six RBIs on Wednesday, Muncy has now driven in 42 runs in his last 37 games.

The offensive output — which continued with a towering home run from Michael Conforto in the eighth — marked one of the few times this year the Dodgers provided Yoshinobu Yamamoto with ample run support. On Wednesday alone, they matched the eight total runs they had scored in his previous four starts this month.

It proved to be plenty on a night the right-hander spun a much-needed gem, bouncing back from the 5.23 ERA he had in June entering the night with five scoreless innings that included one hit, one walk and six strikeouts.

The only thing that stopped Yamamoto was the rain, forcing him to make an early exit after a one-hour, 27-minute delay that began immediately after Muncy’s pop-up. But by that point, the sudden showers had already done enough, helping the Dodgers take a lead they wouldn’t relinquish on a routine pop-up the Rockies’ infield lost sight of.

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