Freddie Freeman is trying to chase something simpler than a long-term fix right now: results.
After a stretch that’s been slowed by right knee tendinitis, the Dodgers first baseman broke out with a three-hit night in the opener against the Cincinnati Reds. It was only his second multi-hit game of the month and his first three-hit game since Aug. 17, a much-needed jolt after he had gone 0-for-8 in the Dodgers’ final two games at loanDepot Park.
Freeman said he’s been making changes in the cage over the last few days and is leaning into whatever gives him a spark at this point in the season.
“I’ve been kind of working on this new thing in the cage these last couple days,” Freeman said on SportsNet LA. “Got to go for results-based things right now.
I’ve got to get hot with two weeks to go. I’m looking to be hot for a few weeks.
That’s all I’m trying to do.”
He’s even reaching back to the adjustment that helped fuel his historic 2024 World Series run.
“Just doing different work. I’m trying to find something that gets me results. We’re at the time where we’re just trying to get hot for five weeks here,” Freeman noted.
“Kind of like I did in the World Series a couple years ago, I did the step-out move. That’s not sustainable over six months.
(But) I’m not trying to find something that’s sustainable. I’m trying to find something that works for four weeks.”
The follow-up wasn’t as clean. Freeman went 0-for-5 in the Dodgers’ 6-2 loss to the Reds on Wednesday, though he had initially been expected to sit. Instead, he showed enough in pregame that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts changed his mind and put him in the lineup.
Freeman then started again in the finale at Great American Ball Park and went 2-for-3 with an RBI as the Dodgers clinched the National League West division.
With a little more than a week left in the regular season, Roberts said the Dodgers are putting player health first and will keep a close eye on Freeman’s workload.
“I think it’s one of those things where we’ve got to manage it, and when I say that, it’s just pick spots to give him an off day here or there,” Roberts recently said. “Again, we’ve just got to make sure he’s at optimal health when we finish the season. So I think that he might not love it, but giving him a day off here or there might be beneficial.”
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