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Los Angeles, CA - April 10: Max Muncy #13 of the Los Angeles Dodgers points to the sky after hitting a solo home run to tie Steve Garvey with 211 home runs for his career as a Dodger in the second inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Friday, April 10, 2026. (Photo by Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images) | MediaNews Group via Getty Images
LOS ANGELES — Max Muncy’s first home run on Friday night tied Steve Garvey for sixth on the all-time Dodgers home run list, and third since the team moved to Los Angeles. But that was just the start of the story.
Muncy hit two more home runs in the series opener against the Texas Rangers, including a walk-off shot in the ninth inning to finish off an 8-7 win at Dodger Stadium.
“Garvey is one of those guys, he’s a Dodger icon, the way he carried himself, the way he played the game, just a model of consistency,” Muncy said Friday night. “He really embodied what being a Dodger was, so to pass him is really, really special to me. It means a lot. Hopefully I can keep climbing.”
Many times in recent years, Muncy stated his desire to remain playing in Los Angeles, where he resurrected his career in 2018 and has kept hitting since. To that end, he and the team signed a contract extension in February that will keep the third baseman with the Dodgers through 2027, plus a club option for 2028, the fifth contract extension Muncy has signed here.
“He knows that we believe in him, and we’ve shown that many times over. I think there’s some peace with that,” manager Dave Roberts said Friday night. “That’s kind of the thought behind what Andrew [Friedman, president of baseball operations] and [general manager Brandon] Gomer [Gomes] did, to free his mind up and just let him play baseball. That’s really played out.”
He’s well aware of his place in Dodgers history, which includes two All-Star Game, five pennants, and three championships. He’s the all-time franchise leader in postseason home runs with 16, and he’s moving up the regular season list, too.
Most home runs, Dodgers history
- Duke Snider 389
- Gil Hodges 361
- Eric Karros 270
- Roy Campanella 242
- Ron Cey 228
- Max Muncy 213
- Steve Garvey 211
- Matt Kemp 203
The only two Los Angeles Dodgers with more home runs than Muncy are Eric Karros and Ron Cey. Just under 60 percent of Muncy’s home runs with the Dodgers have come at home. His 124 home runs at Dodger Stadium are only six behind Karros for the most in the 65-year history of the stadium.
Muncy on Friday also shared Dodgers lore with outfielder Don Demeter, as the only two Dodgers to finish off a three-home run game with a walk-off home run.
Demeter hit a two-run shot in the 11th inning on April 21, 1959 at the Los Angeles Coliseum to beat the San Francisco Giants, finishing off his three-homer game. Muncy’s final blast was a solo shot, as were all three of his home runs on Friday and all four so far this season.
Muncy has the somewhat-funny early season stat line of four home runs and four runs batted in. Entering Friday he was hitting .216/.326/.297 with a 32.6-percent strikeout rate in all of 43 plate appearances later.
“Even in Toronto, when he wasn’t getting hits, he was telling me numerous times, ‘Doc, I’m really close,’” Roberts said. “I think in years past you see a spike and some anxiousness bleed in. Where now he’s in a place where he’s really confident and trusting the process that if he’s in a good place and not getting results, to kind of stay the course.”
Now, with five more plate appearances under his belt, Muncy is hitting a robust .286/.375/.571, a tidy 323-point jump in OPS in one night. In addition to the home runs, Muncy also singled and reached on a fielder’s choice, and scored five times, setting a new career high.
But the home runs were the thing, with the first and third shots hit to right field, and the middle one to left center.
“His second home run was a short, compact swing, that he carried the left field wall,” Roberts said. “I just think that he’s a mch better hitter now. He’s checking down better because he has more time to see the baseball. His swing’s a little bit shorter. That’s something we always felt that he had in him.”
“When I can drive the ball to left center, that’s when my swing is at its best,” Muncy said. “I don’t know if it’s at its best right now — obviously, it was my best night — but anytime I can drive the ball to the opposite field, that’s telling me that what I’m doing is in a really good spot.”
Muncy also homered three times in a game on May 5, 2024, in a rout of the Atlanta Braves, another game at Dodger Stadium. He’s one of only six players to hit at least three home runs in a game twice for the Dodgers. That includes Shohei Ohtani, whose second three-homer game came in Game 4 of last year’s National League Championship Series, a game in which he also pitched six scoreless innings and struck out 10 to clinch the pennant. Friday night at Dodger Stadium, everyone in attendance got a bobblehead commemorating Ohtani’s three home runs in that NLCS game, then got to see a three-homer game themselves in person.
Dodgers with two 3-homer games
- Duke Snider (1950, 1955)
- Shawn Green (2001, 2002)
- Adrián González (2015, 2016)
- Corey Seager (2016, 2017)
- Shohei Ohtani (2024, 2025 NLCS)
- Max Muncy (2024, 2026)
“Anytime you hit a home run in a big league game is special, let alone three. Its the second time I’ve done that. I still think about the first time I did it,” Muncy said. “It’s just a special night, and to get the win on top of it, it’s great.”
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