Max Muncy, Michael Conforto come alive on offense as Dodgers defeat Guardians

Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times on May 27, 2025

Published in Baseball

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CLEVELAND — For a few weeks now, the Dodgers have been in the “treading water” portion of their season, trying to work through injuries in their pitching staff and inconsistencies in the lineup to remain atop the National League West standings.

On Tuesday, in a 9-5 win over the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field, the team’s play embodied that dynamic.

Starting pitcher Dustin May was mostly good, but gave up a three-run homer that marred an otherwise productive five-inning start. Slumping hitters Max Muncy and Michael Conforto showed long-awaited life, both going deep late to help the Dodgers pull away.

And though the rest of the offense squandered chances for even more on a cool night in Cleveland, the Dodgers still clinched a series win against the Guardians and set up the chance for a much-needed sweep at the end of this East Coast swing.

For most of this season, the Dodgers have been operating around sub-par production from Muncy and Conforto — at the plate and in the field.

Entering the night, both veteran sluggers had slumped through much of the season. Muncy had just three home runs and a .653 OPS. Conforto had only two long balls and a .562 OPS. Their defense had been glaring weaknesses, as well.

It had made the pair the weakest links in the Dodgers’ star-studded lineup. And it had invited widespread scrutiny from the fan base, raising speculation about their long-term roles with the team.

Late Tuesday night, however, both finally breathed a deep sigh of relief.

After an early 4-0 Dodgers lead — built on a two-run second-inning rally and two-run homer from Shohei Ohtani in the fourth — had been cut to 4-3 on Daniel Schneemann’s three-run homer off May in the bottom of fourth, Conforto came to the plate in the sixth and hit his first deep fly since April 5.

For the last several weeks, Conforto had slowly started turning his season around, hitting the ball harder and posting incrementally better results (not that things could have gotten much worse after he batted .134 in his first 36 games this season). This week, manager Dave Roberts said the club’s hitting coaches were optimistic about Conforto’s recent cage work, as well, ever-convinced the left-handed slugger was close to a more profound breakthrough at the plate.

It all came together in a full-count against Guardians reliever Hunter Gaddis, Conforto barreling up an inside fastball for a 406-foot drive to center.

Conforto also singled in the Dodgers’ two-run second-inning rally, and later drew a walk in the eighth, raising his OPS to .833 over his last 14 games.

Muncy, too, continued his own recent turnaround at the plate.

In the second inning, the third baseman drew a walk, got a good jump against Guardians starter Tanner Bibee to steal second without a throw, then got a good read on Andy Pages’ flare single to right to score the night’s opening run. Pages would later tack on an RBI single to open up a 2-0 advantage.

Despite Ohtani hitting his MLB-leading 20th homer of the season in the fourth — making it three-straight games in which he’s left the yard — and Conforto providing some insurance with his blast in the sixth, the game remained in doubt until Muncy came up again in the eighth, hitting his first homer in almost three weeks on a three-run shot that had him bat-flipping out of the box.

Mistakes were still abound for the Dodgers (34-21).

The team’s second-inning rally was cut short after Tommy Edman, another cold Dodgers hitter of late, hit into a double-play grounder in which baserunner Dalton Rushing couldn’t avoid a tag while running to second.

In the fifth, Teoscar Hernández was slow getting out of the box on a line drive off the wall in right-center, and was thrown out by a mile after making an ill-advised decision to still try for a double.

And in between that, May hit a major speed bump, offering up a down-the-middle sinker with two aboard in the bottom of the fourth that Schneemann.

But, the Dodgers still held on. Jack Dreyer and Ben Casparius provided three key innings of relief. Conforto and Muncy’s contributions made the two runs Luis García yielded in the ninth irrelevant.

And a club that’s simply been trying to keep its head above water lately was able to breathe a little easier, ensuring it will do no worse than split this six-game trip.