HOUSTON — Freddie Freeman was placed on the family emergency list and will miss a minimum of three games.
The Dodgers have no expectations for when Freeman will join them, however. His 3-year-old son, Maximus, has been hospitalized and is undergoing tests. The family emergency list can run as long as seven days.
“I think, for us, we don’t know,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of how long Freeman might be away from the team. “We’re just trying to let him spend time with his family and pray that things continue to improve.
“For me, personally, it’s just waiting to hear from him and when he wants to come back.”
In the meantime, the Dodgers promoted catcher Hunter Feduccia from Triple-A Oklahoma City. The 27-year-old Feduccia was a 12th-round pick out of LSU in 2018. He was hitting .295 with five home runs and an .871 OPS while sharing the catching duties at OKC with Diego Cartaya.
Feduccia made the trip to Korea in March and played in the two exhibition games there, but this is his first major-league time. He has never played anything but catcher and doesn’t figure in to the replacement plan for Freeman at first base. Roberts said that will fall to either Cavan Biggio, who started at first Friday and Saturday, or Kiké Hernandez.
A lineup that started the season with three former MVPs is now down to one (Shohei Ohtani). The lineup figures to get even shorter Sunday when Roberts said Will Smith will get the day off. Smith is also not an option to play first base – a position he has made just one disastrous late-inning appearance at during the 2021 season. His lack of familiarity with the position cost the Dodgers a game.
“It’s not the lineup we projected when we started the season,” Roberts said.
“It’s a lot more fun when you can write ‘Betts, Freeman, Ohtani, Smith and Muncy’ and all those guys. It’s also fun to see those other guys get opportunities. Now it’s up to them to take advantage of it.”
Right-hander Walker Buehler will make another start with Triple-A Oklahoma City and “hopefully get through the fifth (inning) and then we’ll see where that goes,” Roberts said.
Buehler went four innings Friday, allowing runs in three of those innings (four in all) and giving up eight hits while walking two.
Building up his pitch count is one thing. But Buehler also needs to start getting some better results, Roberts acknowledged.
“I think it’s more the latter,” Roberts said. “At this point, when you’re in July, towards the end of July, and coming back in potentially August at some point, it’s about getting guys out. That’s where we’re at. That’s where I’m at. So we gotta build him up, certainly, to take down innings. But the name of the game is to get hitters out. That’s the goal.”
Brusdar Graterol and Michael Grove each made their third rehab appearance with OKC on Friday as well. But Roberts said neither is close to returning yet.
“With those two guys, not soon, no,” Roberts said. “They still gotta go through the progressions (of pitching on back-to-back days).”
Right-hander Bobby Miller made his second start Saturday since being demoted to OKC before the All-Star break.
Dodgers rookie Andy Pages was called out on a third-strike pitch violation in the fourth inning of Friday’s game when he wasn’t in the batter’s box as the pitch clock reached eight seconds left. Pages argued vehemently, gesturing toward Astros left-hander Framber Valdez, who was not only not on the rubber but he wasn’t even on the mound at the time.
He doesn’t have to be.
The pitch-clock rule requires batters to be in the box and ready to hit at the 8-second mark, but pitchers are only required to begin their motion before the time expires.
“That’s called gamesmanship,” Roberts said. “Framber took him to school. He wasn’t on the rubber. He wasn’t on the mound. But as the rule states, the hitter has got to be in the box at eight seconds. He wasn’t in the box, and you get called out.
“Framber will do that once in a while to use the pitch clock to his advantage. And unfortunately, we were on the short end of that one.
“Andy is trying to survive and take an at-bat and sees a pitcher that’s not on the mound, and is waiting as most hitters do. But he got played right there.”
Dodgers (RHP River Ryan, 0-0, 0.00 ERA) at Astros (RHP Spencer Arrighetti, 4-8, 5.95 ERA), 11:10 a.m. Sunday, SportsNet LA, 570 AM
