PHOENIX — It takes a lot to get Freddie Freeman out of the starting lineup. And the last six weeks have been a lot.
Freeman has not missed more than four games in a season since he suffered a fractured wrist in 2017. In his first two years with the team, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has agreed not to approach the All-Star first baseman with even the suggestion of taking a day off until the team has clinched a division title.
But this year, Freeman left the team for eight games in late July and early August to be with his son, Maximus, after he was hospitalized and diagnosed with Guillan-Barre syndrome. Less than two weeks after returning, Freeman took a bad-hop ground ball off his right hand and suffered a hairline fracture in his middle finger.
Freeman tried to play through it, going 3 for 23 (.130) in six games before Roberts called him Sunday and suggested it might be better if Freeman took a few days off. The fracture wouldn’t heal in three days but the time off might give the pain time to settled down and Freeman did not play during the three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles.
He can admit now that it was a good idea for more than his finger.
“Once I got into the break, that’s when I was like, ‘You know what, I think it’s time to just shut it off for a second,’” Freeman said. “We all have things going on in our lives. It’s been a lot the last six weeks.”
Freeman tried to lean into the idea of making it a mental break.
“Tuesday was hard. I think all the coaches are happy that I’m back in the lineup,” he said. “Yesterday, I was very antsy and restless. But when you get there, you just do your work. It was kind of nice not having to worry about sinkers in and cutters and curveballs and stuff like that for a day.
“I think it’s more of just waking up and not having to think about scouting reports and just shut off 10 percent of what you normally do when you’re playing throughout the course of the season. We’re all going a million miles a minute trying to do the best we can. So to shut off the little part of your brain, to relax it for three days, it definitely was nice.”
The most difficult part for Freeman was the disruption to his pregame routine, cutting his typical three rounds of pregame batting practice to about 10 swings. Freeman does not take any disruption to his routine well.
“It’s more of – I can’t do my routines and practice like I want to and get ready for games,” he said. “I can still play. Obviously, I didn’t play very well. But I can still go out there and compete. But that was the main thing for me, was I wasn’t able to prepare like I normally do over the last 15 years in my career. So that was kind of the goal of giving me a couple days off, was to hopefully let it subside a little bit so I could do my routines. I’ve been able to do that the last couple days.”
There is still pain in his injured finger and Freeman wasn’t sure before Friday’s game if he would wear a splint or not. He said the injury affects him more when throwing and less and less when gripping a bat the farther away from the original injury.
“Throwing was the 10 out of 10 for me last week. I wasn’t expecting that at all,” he said. “I thought it would be gripping and swinging. But throwing the ball, coming off the middle finger, I was not ready for that. I didn’t know that was going to hurt that bad. I feel better than I did last week. The gripping, yesterday and the day before swinging I wasn’t really thinking about it. I was able to practice without thinking about the fracture. Hopefully, we’ve gotten far enough away, two weeks away, that I’ll be able to do everything without thinking about it.”
Right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto rejoined the Dodgers in Arizona after making his first rehab start for Triple-A Oklahoma City on Wednesday. He threw 31 pitches in two innings, retiring six of the seven batters he faced, and then threw approximately 10 more pitches in the bullpen to simulate another inning.
He is scheduled to throw a bullpen session on Sunday and then make a second rehab start with OKC on Tuesday, adding an inning. Yamamoto could rejoin the Dodgers’ rotation after that or make a third rehab start depending on how Tuesday goes.
Right-hander Tyler Glasnow resumed his throwing program by playing catch on Friday afternoon. He is expected to continue playing catch and progress from there.
Right-hander Brusdar Graterol is scheduled to throw to hitters in a live batting practice session Saturday. Graterol has been out with a hamstring injury but could start a rehab assignment after that.
Dodgers (RHP Gavin Stone, 11-5, 3.33 ERA) at Diamondbacks (RHP Merrill Kelly, 4-0, 3.98 ERA), Saturday, 5:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM
