LOS ANGELES — Freddie Freeman came barreling around third base on his bum ankle, scoring from second on a single to center field with the Dodgers second run of the game.
Just after he crossed the plate Mookie Betts was there as his backstop. Betts grabbed Freeman and held him up as both smiled.
“I’m trying to push it to make sure I get in, especially with two outs in the first inning,” Freeman said. “You want to capitalize. You don’t want to be a base to base guy, so I gave it all I got. I needed Mookie to stop me from going over at the end.”
Betts, whose listed weight is 40 pounds less than Freeman’s, said it was all he could do to hold up his teammate.
“He’s a big dude,” Betts said. “Kind of collapsing. Luckily I lift weights so I was able to hold him. He’s giving us everything he has. I was just there to support him. It’s amazing what he’s doing right now.”
Freeman, who sprained his right ankle in the 159th game of the season, has been producing in a way that belies his physical limitations.
Freeman walked and singled twice in the Dodgers’ 9-0 victory over the New York Mets in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. He’s now 6 for 17 (.353) in the postseason.
“He’s a warrior,” Chris Taylor said. “He’s actually been doing this for us all year. It’s obviously on another level and on a bigger stage right now, but we know the mentality he has. He’s as reliable as they come. The guy’s gonna play through anything. Not only is he playing, he’s performing.”
Freeman has been hobbled throughout the postseason, getting by with some medication and a tape job that Manager Dave Roberts said looked more appropriate for a football player.
Freeman said it takes about 4½ hours worth of treatment each day to get him ready to play. With a day game coming up on Monday, Freeman quipped that he and Bernard Li, the Dodgers’ physical therapist and head of rehabilitation, “might be sleeping here tonight.”
Freeman’s injury could have had him out for weeks, but he had just one week off before the Dodgers’ first playoff game. Since then, Freeman’s condition has been a daily question around the team.
Freeman played five of six games in the postseason, but he completed just one of them. He came out of Sunday’s game after his at-bat in the seventh inning.
He had to come out of Game 2 of the Division Series, which told the Dodgers playing games on back-to-back days was a bit much for him. That’s why he didn’t even start Game 4.
Now, the Dodgers are facing a best-of-seven series, including the potential to play on three consecutive days in New York, in Games 3-5. Roberts conceded their use of Freeman in those games is something they’re “thinking about,” but he insisted that they are not going to get ahead of themselves.
“We’re mindful of it,” Roberts said before Game 1. “But my message to him was let’s get through today. Once we get through today, we’ll kind of pick up the pieces. See where he’s at.”
The Mets also have two left-handed starting pitchers – Game 2 starter Sean Manaea and José Quintana – so the Dodgers could give the left-handed hitting Freeman a rest day against one of those two.
Freeman said he’s reached a point at which he knows when he wakes up in the morning “if I’m going to be able to make it through.”
“I know what to expect, day in and day out,” Freeman said. “It’s obviously not going to get any better, but I think we’re at a good point where it’s not going to get any worse unless I roll it again.”
