Max Muncy caps three-homer night with walk-off blast in Dodgers win

Andy Pages’ big night was nearly wasted by Edwin Díaz’s first blown save as the Dodgers closer.

Instead, it all set up Max Muncy for some walk-off heroics.

In an 8-7 win over the Texas Rangers on Friday night, Muncy hit three home runs. The first opened the scoring. The second chipped away at a mid-game deficit. The last became the most memorable early moment of the Dodgers’ hot start to this season.

After the Dodgers had built a three-run lead on the back of Pages’ 3-for-3, four-RBI showing, then squandered it when Díaz allowed three runs in a stunning ninth-inning collapse, Muncy came up in the bottom half of the inning and saved the day with one swing –– blasting a solo drive deep to right field for a walk-off win.

The game shouldn’t have required such dramatics, of course.

When Díaz entered in the ninth, the victory seemed well at hand.

But then, a nightmarish inning began when Joc Pederson had a strikeout overturned via ABS challenge and later singled.

Evan Carter followed that with a two-run homer, trimming the three-run Dodgers lead down to one. Then, with two outs, Josh Jung singled, stole second and scored on Ezquiel Duran’s game-tying base hit to left field.

All the work the Dodgers (10-3) had done to erase the early 3-1 hole Corey Seager had put them in with a three-run blast in the third inning was gone.

All the highlights Pages had amassed in his latest masterpiece performance were on the verge of becoming a waste.

Alas, with two outs in the ninth, Muncy came up against Rangers left-hander Jakob Latz, timed up an 0-2 slider that stayed up and over the plate, then strolled out of the box as his game-winning homer sailed into the night.