Max Muncy believes Dodger Stadium’s indoor grass is partly to blame for defensive struggles

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The Los Angeles Dodgers are looking to find some consistency as a group, Max Muncy is also trying to get on track both in the batting box and at third base.

The 32-year-old entered the game Sunday with just .129/.270/.226 with 15 strikeouts in 37 plate appearances. In addition to his offensive struggles, Muncy has already made two errors and is part of multiple misses at third base.

Muncy knows he played poorly and criticized himself for not being able to handle the hard jumps in the hot corner, via Southern California News Group’s Bill Plunkett:

When things go wrong, they go wrong, Muncy said Thursday. I’m between everything and I get tricky jumps and I don’t put myself in a position to handle them.

Muncy didn’t want to make excuses for his poor defensive play, but noted that the Dodger Stadium grass was still coming in, which likely altered the trajectory of some of the balls hit him:

I’m not going to make excuses but Jordan (Lorenz) our gardener said they planted a brand new field and due to the cold and rainy weather he hasn’t had a chance yet to settle down, Muncy said. So there were a few balls where the seams touched the grass and bounced off somehow, but grass on the third it’s different than it has been in years past . Once we get warm weather it will go away. Like I said, (there were) a few tricky jumps but I can’t put myself up to handling those jumps.

Prior to the 2022 season, Muncy mostly played first and second base, where he fared much better defensively. He struggled growing at third base last year as a primary starter as Justin Turner moved into a more designated hitting role.

Now, Muncy is the Dodgers’ daily starter and, in his opinion, has played a better third base on their road trip so far.

Max Muncy wears protective shell again

Earlier in his career, Muncy made the decision to stop wearing a protective shell to improve his defense. But after removing a ground ball from his groin injury last week, he started using one again.

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