LOS ANGELES -- After playing middling baseball for the past couple of months, the Dodgers have been determined to get hot at the right time. With three weeks left in the regular season, they have one of their most impactful bats back in action.
Third baseman Max Muncy was activated from the 10-day injured list ahead of Monday night's series opener against the Rockies at Dodger Stadium, where he batted cleanup and manned the hot corner.
Catcher Chuckie Robinson, who did not make an appearance for the Dodgers after his contract was selected in the wake of Dalton Rushing's injury, was optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City as the corresponding move.
"Obviously it's a big boost," manager Dave Roberts said. "We've been waiting for this one for a long time, not to add any pressure to Max. But just kind of having his presence in the lineup, just taking the quality at-bat. Obviously adds length to our lineup, another left-handed hitter who can just do some things, and just provide some slug, some on-base, the ability to get a hit."
Muncy had been on the IL for more than three weeks with a strained right oblique. Prior to that, he missed a month due to a bone bruise in his left knee. Without Muncy, the Dodgers have struggled to consistently produce runs, and their placement in the standings has suffered.
The Dodgers had a season-high nine-game lead in the division when Muncy's first IL stint began on July 3. Entering Monday, they led the Padres by just one game in the NL West and were four games behind the Phillies for the second seed -- and first-round bye -- in the NL.
Muncy was away from the team during last week's road trip, when the Dodgers dropped five in a row -- including when the bullpen could not close out a near no-hitter from Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Saturday -- before salvaging the finale in Baltimore. He is well aware of how many games are remaining on the schedule and what's at stake in the standings.
But the veteran third baseman would like to see his team block out the external noise and just focus on themselves in the final weeks of the regular season.
"It's definitely one of those stretches, and it's been one of those stretches for a while," Muncy said. "Time's running out to come out of it. … I think the biggest thing for us is to try to get the focus back on what's going on today.
"What happened this whole last week doesn't matter. What happened two months ago doesn't matter. What matters is, what are we going to do today? The only team that we need to be worrying about is ourselves. We don't need to be worried about anyone else. We just need to worry about ourselves."
Having a more complete lineup after Muncy's return should help in that regard. Entering Monday, the Dodgers' top three hitters in terms of wRC+ were Shohei Ohtani (169), Will Smith (153) and Muncy (145). Muncy was hitting .258 with an .880 OPS, 17 homers and 64 RBIs before this most recent IL stint.
Muncy is the first of several lineup regulars expected to return this week.
Smith, who has been out of the starting lineup for five games since taking a foul tip off his right hand in Pittsburgh, is expected to start behind the plate on Tuesday. Utility man Tommy Edman should be back on Wednesday.
Despite their many bumps in the road recently, the Dodgers are a first-place club getting closer to having a full-strength roster. In these final three weeks, they need to finish what they started.
"If we go out there and we play winning baseball the rest of the season," Muncy said, "we're going to be in a great spot come October. And that's really all that matters. What everyone else is doing really has no effect on us. We've put ourselves in a position where if we just play our game and go out and win games, we're going to be in the best spot possible."