LOS ANGELES — Freddie Freeman pulled into Dodger Stadium at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, a good 6½ hours before first pitch, and fans were already lined up at entrances to ensure they’d be among the 40,000 to receive bobblehead dolls commemorating the first baseman’s walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of last October’s World Series.
“It was kind of crazy,” said Freeman, the 2024 World Series MVP who came off the injured list for the series opener against the Chicago Cubs. “I do appreciate it. This is really cool.”
Freeman caught the ceremonial first pitch from his 8-year-old son, Charlie, and was serenaded by spirited chants of “Fred-die! Fred-die!” before his first at-bat, a sellout crowd of 53,933 hoping Freeman could conjure some Shohei Ohtani-like magic after Ohtani hit a walk-off homer on his bobblehead night on April 2.
Alas, Freeman had nothing up his sleeve, the slugger striking out twice, getting hit by a pitch and grounding out with two on to end the seventh inning, but his return to the lineup for the first time since March 29 was still triumphant thanks to the efforts of teammates Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tommy Edman.
Yamamoto blanked the Cubs on two hits through six innings, striking out nine and walking one, and Edman snapped a scoreless tie with a three-run home run in the bottom of the sixth to lift the Dodgers to a 3-0 victory over the Cubs.
Chicago left-hander Matthew Boyd blanked the Dodgers on two hits through five innings, extending his season-opening scoreless innings streak to 16, when Teoscar Hernández singled to left field with one out in the sixth and Freeman was hit by a pitch.
Edman then obliterated an 80-mph, knee-high changeup from Boyd, sending a 108.4-mph drive 423 feet into the left-field pavilion for his sixth home run of the season, tying him with Aaron Judge, Kyle Schwarber, Mike Trout and Tyler Soderstrom for the major league lead. The six homers also matched Edman’s total in 37 games for the Dodgers last season.
Kirby Yates struck out two of three in a scoreless seventh, Blake Treinen retired the side in order in the eighth, and Tanner Scott retired the side in order in the ninth to close out the Dodgers’ second straight win after they lost four of five games in Philadelphia and Washington.
Yamamoto was the team’s best pitcher through three starts, allowing three runs in 16 innings (1.69 ERA) of victories over the Cubs and Detroit Tigers and a no-decision against the Phillies, and he was dominant for most of his six innings Friday night.
He retired 10 straight batters to open the game, four of the first six by strikeout, dotting a knee-high 97-mph fastball to whiff Kyle Tucker, one of baseball’s hottest hitters, looking in the first inning and winning a nine-pitch duel with Nico Hoerner, who struck out looking at a 96-mph knee-high fastball one the outside corner in the second.
Tucker grounded a one-out double down the right-field line for Chicago’s first hit in the fourth. Seiya Suzuki followed with a single to right field that was hit so hard Tucker was held by third-base coach Quintin Berry.
But Suzuki took a wide turn around first and got caught in a rundown, Freeman cutting off Teoscar Hernández’s throw from right and throwing to shortstop Mookie Betts, who tagged out Suzuki before Tucker could break home. Yamamoto then struck out Michael Busch swinging at a 92-mph split-fingered fastball to end the inning.
Yamamoto retired the next five batters before Ian Happ drew a two-out walk in the sixth. Yamamoto got ahead of Tucker, who entered with a .322 batting average, five home runs and 16 RBIs, with a 95-mph fastball for a called strike and a looping 75-mph curve for a swinging strike.
Tucker then worked the count full before swinging through a 90-mph cut-fastball – Yamamoto’s 103rd and last pitch of the evening – for the third out. Yamamoto threw first-pitch strikes to 14 of 20 batters.
“The message is to attack and be aggressive in the zone with all of your pitches, and Yamamoto has done a really good job of that with plus command of his fastball,” Manager Dave Roberts said.
“When you can attack and strike your breaking balls, your secondary pitches, you’re gonna induce soft contact, quick at-bats. And when you get count leverage, you can put guys away.”
More to come on this story.