LOS ANGELES — Freddie Freeman dealt with his fair share of aches and pains in the first half. But lately, not much has bothered the star first baseman more than his swing.
That even rang true Sunday, when Freeman took an 88 mph sinker off his left wrist and removed himself from the Dodgers’ loss to the Brewers. The team breathed a sigh of relief when Freeman’s X-rays came back negative, but there was still some question of whether he’d feel well enough to play the following day.
Freeman wasn’t preoccupied with his wrist. He spent the night thinking about his swing.
On Monday morning, Freeman woke up feeling good and let manager Dave Roberts know that he would be in the starting lineup for the series opener against the Twins. He went 1-for-4 with a double in the Dodgers’ 5-2 victory.
“He’s doing well,” Roberts said. “Sore, but [he] feels that him being in the lineup, we’re better for it, and he’s not going to be compromised as far as any kind of further injury from it.”
Freeman felt even better once he got to Dodger Stadium and felt his swing click for the first time in a while. He had previously said that his swing hadn’t felt quite right since mid-May. The disconnect is reflected in his production, as Freeman entered Monday hitting .199 with a .553 OPS since June 1.
When Freeman was hit on Sunday, it was the way he reacted that raised the most concern for the Dodgers. It was uncharacteristic behavior for Freeman, who would typically rather play through discomfort than exit a game, to walk toward the home dugout immediately after being hit.
“There’s dull pain,” Freeman said. “Obviously, I just got hit on the bone in my wrist, so it’s not gonna feel good. But it was more of I got hit, and it’s the same wrist I broke, so I figured it was gonna flare up and swell, which it did. But we immediately got it down.”
After Sunday’s game, Freeman saw a picture of his batting stance from last year’s World Series. He had looked at a lot of photos while trying to fix his swing, but something clicked when he saw this particular image and realized he was more “in” his front ankle, the one he had surgically repaired this past offseason.
Freeman was so anxious to try this new cue, he said, that he didn’t sleep very well because he was trying to make sure that he would remember it in the morning. It’s similar to a tweak he made earlier this season, when he returned from the 10-day injured list after aggravating his right ankle.
“It’s a different thought of being in your legs when you’re hitting,” Freeman said. “It’s just more into my front ankle, so it’s helping me be on time and on top. And I could hit 42 mph BP today, so we’ll see how it goes in the game.”
