Dodgers: Max Muncy Puts On A Hollywood Show

If your heart held out after watching that tense 9th inning, you survived quite a drama filled ending. Kenley Jansen had a bit of back luck, as well as some contact, and got himself into a jam. As Brett Gardner slid into Max Muncy at 2nd, he slid pretty hard and appeared to put his arm out and shove our beloved Max Muncy. Max appeared to be in a lot of pain, and the umpires called time. Turns out, Max wasn’t exactly injured…

Max Muncy on what he thought about Gardner’s slide in the ninth, the tension of that inning overall, and Kenley Jansen #Dodgers pic.twitter.com/o7rQkVQOuR

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— Michael J. Duarte (@michaeljduarte) August 24, 2019

Max Goes Hollywood

“He still got me good, it still hurt, so it wasn’t entirely fake, but there might have been a little acting class in there.”

Savvy veteran stuff from Max Muncy. I’m sure some people didn’t like this. In the end, it absolutely saved a run. The slide was clean in terms of the current rules, but the hands of Brett Gardner going up and giving Muncy the business definitely didn’t look good. The fact that Max Muncy was quick enough on his feet (pun absolutely intended) to think of this on the fly is pretty impressive.

Here’s the play in question:

This isn’t @Jomboy_ quality but it’s I could do from the couch. Watch how Gardner’s knees go into Muncy and how he gives him a little extra with his right arm as he rolls over. It’s technically a clean slide but also a breakup up the DP no matter what slide. pic.twitter.com/NqC718P3i3

— Todd Munson (@themunson) August 24, 2019

We’ve seen other trickery like this before throughout the years of MLB. It is always both lauded and derided for the same reasons.