"Played a lot of football growing up" - Max Muncy breaks silence after taking a scary 94 mph heater to the head

Max Muncy was involved in a scary situation during the Los Angeles Dodgers' Saturday night game against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park.

The All-Star third baseman took a 94.1 mph sinker to his head from Giants ace Matt Gage in the sixth inning of the game. Muncy was trying to avoid the line of the pitch but was struck on the right side of the head. He stayed on the ground for a few minutes as Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and a trainer evaluated him.

Muncy stayed in the game initially but was replaced at third base by Kike Hernandez in the bottom of the sixth inning. Muncy broke silence on the scary incident after the game, downplaying a concussion.

"As of right now, we’re OK. Jaw hurts a little bit, but I did get hit in the face," Muncy said. "But I played enough football growing up. Know all the signs I need to be looking for, and I don’t have any of those, so it’s obviously good. Sucks to get hit again, but that’s baseball.”

Muncy won't be featuring in the series finale on Sunday as part of his scheduled day off. He is batting .253 with a .387 on-base percentage, .866 OPS, 17 home runs and 64 RBIs.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts confirms Max Muncy is "fine" after scary hit

Max Muncy said that his early exit was a precautionary measure and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts echoed the sentiment after the game.

"Scary moment, but he came out of it fine," Roberts said. "But at that point in time, I just felt that [it was] best to cut his night short."

The Dodgers led 9-7 at the time of Muncy's exit and added two more runs in the frame to take a four-run lead. They added another run in the ninth to complete a 13-7 win, coming back from 4-1 down after the first inning.

Despite Max Muncy being out of the lineup for Sunday's game, the Dodgers will be hoping to secure the series with a win in the series decider.

About the author

Chaitanya Prakash is an editor who covers US Sports at Sportskeeda. His first brush with sportswriting was in 2012 when the greatest football manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson, bid farewell to the beautiful game.

Although having started out professionally as a cricket writer in 2022, Chaitanya's curiosity and indiscriminate interest in all sports in general eventually introduced him to America's favorite pastime.

While Chaitanya's favorite player from the current crop is the dynamic Venezuelan Ronald Acuna Jr., his all-time favorite, however, is Pedro Martinez, for his self-belief and consistency. He also rates Jose Bautista's iconic bat flip in 2015 as his favorite moment in baseball history.

Chaitanya specializes in reporting on technical aspects of the game or analyzing patterns behind specific plays. He also likes pondering over players' self-assessments following the conclusion of a game as it helps him get an idea of how they think about the sport in general.

When not cheering for his favorites across sports, Chaitanya likes being transported to the past through a good war documentary or a historical documentary in general.

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Edited by Chaitanya Prakash