LOS ANGELES — Freddie Freeman had a sleepless night after Sunday’s game.
He wasn’t tossing and turning, worrying about getting hit in his left wrist by a pitch nor was he kept awake by the pain from a serious injury to that wrist. He wasn’t able to sleep soundly because he thought he had stumbled on something that could “fix” his swing and was anxious to try it out.
“I saw a picture of my stance in the World Series yesterday that was sent to me,” Freeman said. “I was like, that looks like I’m more into my front ankle. I didn’t sleep very much last night because I was thinking about it, and I came in here and I’ve been working on it, and it’s been a line drive pretty much every time today (during batting practice), so I’m feeling pretty confident in it.”
Freeman has been dissatisfied with his swing since mid-May and has been in the most extended slump of his career. In his 40 games before Monday, he hit .199 with just one home run and a .559 OPS.
“I’ve been getting a lot of pictures sent, hoping to see if we can fix it,” Freeman said. “We had Family Day yesterday (after the game). I talked to my dad a lot. It was more mental stuff but had a lot of pictures, and I saw that.
“You can have things talked to you about, like ‘Do this, try this, that’ and it’s just wait until something clicks. I finally saw something that helped me click today in my work. I wish baseball was more of a guarantee, but I’m very happy with my work heading into the game.”
As for his wrist, Freeman had a brief flashback to 2017 when he got hit by a pitch in the same wrist and suffered a fracture that sidelined him for six weeks. When he was hit by a pitch there again in the sixth inning of Sunday’s game, he immediately walked away from home plate and came out of the game.
But he was back in the lineup on Monday, eager to try out his swing “fix.”
“Feels like I got hit by a ball, but I’m good,” he said.
“I went in there, got X-rayed. As the adrenaline wore off, it was sore. It’s the same wrist I broke in ’17, so that’s why I was a little nervous about it. So I came off, got X-rays, iced it, did all the treatment, treated it all night, woke up this morning, made a fist, and Doc called me, and I said I was good to go.”
TANTRUM TIME
After coming out of the game Sunday, starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw fired his glove and hat into the bench angrily and sat there shouting in frustration. The tantrum wasn’t aimed at anyone in particular, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said – though the Dodgers made multiple misplays defensively behind Kershaw. After the game, Kershaw cut his interview with reporters short, saying he was “going to get myself in trouble” if he continued talking.
“I think it sort of came to a head yesterday with the way Clayton responded after his outing, that was a lot of frustration – in my opinion – of the way we’ve played,” Roberts said. “I think that one of the things that we do well consistently is do the little things, which lead to winning baseball games. When everything is not synced up, those things really come to light a lot more.
“We just need to do a better job of doing the little things and playing the right way. I think that for a guy that’s giving everything he has, where he’s at, and to not have guys hold up their end of the deal, it’s frustrating. I think that’s something that everyone in that clubhouse understood why he was so frustrated.”
REVOLVING RELIEVERS
The Dodgers recalled right-hander Edgardo Henriquez from Triple-A Oklahoma City before Monday’s game and designated veteran reliever Lou Trivino for assignment.
Henriquez started the season on the 60-day injured list after breaking his foot during spring training. Since being activated, he had a 5.89 ERA in 18 appearances for OKC with 26 strikeouts in 18⅓ innings.
The 33-year-old Trivino was signed by the Dodgers after he was released by the San Francisco Giants in May. He had a 3.76 ERA in 26 appearances for the Dodgers but had given up four runs and a .333 batting average in his past 5⅔ innings.
UP NEXT
Twins (RHP Simeon Woods Richardson, 5-4, 3.95 ERA) at Dodgers (RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 8-7, 2.59 ERA), Tuesday, 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, MLB Network (out of market only), 570 AM