TAMPA, Fla. — First, the meme made Freddie Freeman chuckle.
Then, in a serendipitous twist, it gave him a lightning-bulb epiphany about his just lately ailing swing.
On the finish of an extended day throughout final week’s homestand — when Freeman was hit by a pitch on July 20, instantly faraway from the sport to get an X-ray, then knowledgeable he by some means hadn’t sustained severe damage — supervisor Dave Roberts shared with the primary baseman a comical video edit he had obtained from a buddy. A lightweight reprieve on the finish of a annoying day.
In it, the swing of Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in final yr’s World Collection was included right into a spin-off of the viral Coldplay kiss cam video (sure, that Coldplay kiss cam).
Freeman received a chuckle out of the clip.
However, whereas rewatching his Fall Basic second, he additionally made an statement about his iconic swing.
On that evening final October, Freeman observed, “I’m more in my front ankle,” he later mentioned — a delicate, however profound, distinction to how he had been swinging the bat amid a two-month chilly spell he was mired in on the time.
So, for the remainder of that evening, Freeman thought in regards to the distinction. He went into the Dodgers’ batting cages the following afternoon centered on making a change.
“It’s a different thought of being in your legs when you’re hitting,” mentioned Freeman, who had began the season batting .371 over his first 38 video games, earlier than slumping to a .232 mark over his subsequent 49 contests. “It’s just more [about leaning] into my front ankle. It’s helping me be on time and on top [of the ball].”
“We’ll see,” he added with a chuckle, “how it goes in the game.”
Ten video games later, it appears to be going fairly properly.
Since making the tweak on July 21, Freeman is 14 for 39 (.359 common) with two house runs, 4 additional base hits, 10 RBIs and (most significantly) a renewed confidence on the plate.
After amassing his first three-hit recreation in a month Tuesday in Cincinnati, then his first house run in all of July the following night, he stayed sizzling within the Dodgers’ series-opening 5-0 defeat of the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday, whacking a two-run double within the first inning and a solo house run within the fifth in entrance of a crowd of 10,046 at Steinbrenner Discipline (the New York Yankees’ spring coaching park serving because the Rays’ momentary house).
“That visual helped him kind of tap into something,” Roberts laughed just lately of Freeman’s post-meme swing adjustment. “He is early, for a change. Versus being late, chasing.”
Freeman’s turnaround is one thing the Dodgers — who additionally received six scoreless innings out of Clayton Kershaw on Friday, decreasing his season earned-run common to three.29 in 13 begins — want out of a number of famous person sluggers over the ultimate two months of the season.
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw delivers throughout a 5-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday.
(Jason Behnken / Related Press)
Throughout Thursday’s commerce deadline, the crew didn’t splurge on big-name acquisitions. The one addition they made to their just lately slumping lineup (which ranked twenty eighth within the majors in scoring throughout July) was versatile outfielder Alex Name from the Washington Nationals.
As a substitute, each Roberts and membership executives have preached of late, the crew is banking on gamers like Mookie Betts (who’s batting .237), Teoscar Hernández (who has hit .215 since getting back from an adductor pressure in Might), Tommy Edman (who has hit .210 since getting back from an ankle damage in Might) and even Shohei Ohtani (who leads the Nationwide League in house runs, however is batting solely .221 since resuming pitching duties in June) to play as much as their typical, potent requirements.
“I think if you look at it from the offensive side, as far as our guys, they’ll be the first to tell you they’ve got to perform better and more consistently,” Roberts mentioned. “That’s something that we’re all counting on.”
For a lot of the summer time, Freeman had been squarely in that group, as properly.
His current Coldplay-inspired rebound, the membership hopes, can be considered one of many who spark an offensive surge down the stretch this yr.
