The Dodgers’ loss in Friday’s series opener to the Milwaukee Brewers added injury to insult when third baseman Max Muncy left the game after getting hit by a pitch on his right wrist.
Muncy was hit by a 95.5-mph fastball from Aaron Ashby in the top of the eighth inning on Friday, and immediately left the game, replaced by pinch-runner Santiago Espinal.
X-rays on the wrist came back negative.
“We just gotta monitor the next couple days. Typically, especially in that area, the X-rays never come back positive
immediately. It kind of forms a little bit. I’m pretty sure it hit half my wrist pad and then half my wrist,” Muncy told reporters in Milwaukee, as shown by SportsNet LA. “Me deciding to wear that wrist guard the last couple of years might have saved my wrist, at least tonight.”
Muncy has been the Dodgers’ best hitter this season, hitting .258/.363/.515 with a team-leading 147 wRC+ and 12 home runs.
How long Muncy misses remains to be seen, but with left-hander Robert Gasser starting for Milwaukee on Saturday that was likely a logical day for Muncy not to start anyway. Manager Dave Roberts said that Espinal will start at third base in the middle game of the series, and Miguel Rojas will start at second base.
“He’ll be down for the next couple of days, just to make sure we get that swelling out,” Roberts said of Muncy, as shown by SportsNet LA. “But for right now, we’re breathing a sigh of relief.‘
