Upstaging Shohei Ohtani, especially on a day he pitches, is no easy feat.
But at Dodger Stadium on Sunday afternoon, teammate Max Muncy did it twice — hitting two home runs and matching a career high with seven RBIs to lift the Dodgers to 13-7 defeat of the Washington Nationals, and make Ohtani more of the sideshow in his second pitching start of the season.
Despite two strikeouts over a scoreless first inning from Ohtani to begin the day, Dodger Stadium had sat in relative silence for the next five innings.
Ben Casparius, who replaced the still workload-restricted Ohtani on the mound in the second, gave up a three-run home run in the third, when a flyball deflected off Hyeseong Kim’s glove at the wall before hitting a fan reaching over the wall.
Michael Soroka, the former All-Star turned inconsistent journeyman, held the Dodgers hitless into the fifth, racking up a career-high 10 strikeouts while protecting the 3-0 lead.
In the bottom of the sixth, however, an opportunity for the Dodgers finally arose.
Dalton Rushing led off with a slicing ground-rule double down the left-field line. Ohtani drew a walk with the help of two favorable ball-strike calls. Badly slumping Freddie Freeman was bailed out of an 0-and-2 count on a wild slurve from Soroka that hit his foot.
Suddenly, the Nationals had to go to the bullpen, summoning left-hander Jose A. Ferrer to face Muncy with the bases loaded.
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And as Ferrer called out the grounds crew to rake the mound after just three pitches, Muncy stood near home plate and zeroed himself in.
The next two pitches he saw were center-cut sinkers. The first one was fouled off. The second one was sent screaming to left for a script-flipping, deficit-erasing, go-ahead grand slam.
Ohtani started the day as the main attraction.
The two-way star drew a crowd as he came onto the field for pregame warm-ups and got loose in the left-field bullpen — prompting fans even up in the upper reserve-level deck to lean over railings and get a look at his dual-role talents.
And once the game began, Ohtani climbed atop the mound and showed progress from his season debut as a pitcher six days before.
Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani delivers in the first inning against the Nationals on Sunday. (Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
His scoreless inning included strikeouts of Luis Garcia Jr. on a sweeper and Nathaniel Lowe on a cutter, representing his first strikeouts since returning from Tommy John surgery. He worked around a dropped infield pop-up from Mookie Betts in an otherwise efficient 18-pitch, 12-strike outing. He hit 99 mph with his fastball while mixing in a healthy dose of sweepers, cutters and splitters to complement it.
Ohtani also quieted recent questions about whether his return to pitching was affecting his bat.
After entering the day two-for-19 in five games since resuming two-way duties, Ohtani helped the Dodgers (48-31) pull away late. In the seventh, he laced a bases-loaded, three-run triple past the first base bag, turning a narrow one-run lead into a comfortable four-score cushion over the Nationals (32-46). In the eighth, he added more insurance, belting a two-run homer to left-center field for his team-leading 26th long ball.
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Not to be outdone, however, Muncy raised the ante himself in the latter innings, following Ohtani’s seventh-inning triple with a three-run home run to right three batters later.
For Muncy, the day continued a stunning mid-season turnaround — giving him a .305 average with 10 home runs and 38 RBIs over his last 39 games; compared to a .177 average, one home run and seven RBIs in his first 35 contests.
It moved him into third place among National League third basemen this season with an .815 OPS — making a player who once seemed bound for trade rumors this summer unexpectedly on the fringes of All-Star conversation now.
And, it somehow managed to top the all-around production Ohtani displayed in his two-way encore, lifting the Dodgers to a weekend series win and 7-3 record overall on this 10-game homestand.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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