Saturday night, the 2024 MLB postseason resumes when Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres open the NLDS at Dodger Stadium. The Padres eliminated the Atlanta Braves in the Wild Card Series earlier this week. The Dodgers finished with baseball’s best record and had a Wild Card Series bye. Saturday will be their first postseason game.
First baseman Freddie Freeman, who sprained his right ankle while running through first base last Thursday, is expected to be in the Game 1 lineup Saturday, though he acknowledged he is not 100% even as the swelling has subsided.
“They told me this is a 4-6 week IL stint, and I’m going to try to do this in a week and play,” Freeman said Friday. “I’m not going to be hindering, I don’t think. There’s certain plays, like the slowing down stuff. I can’t thank (team physical therapist) Bernard Li, our whole training staff, for getting me able to be able to do this.”
Freeman spent the team’s bye week receiving treatment and testing the ankle in batting practice and running the bases. He also tested the ankle with plays at first base. Freeman can not DH, that is Shohei Ohtani’s spot, so he must be able to play on the ankle on both sides of the ball. It’s not just about getting his bat into the lineup. He has to be able to play first base too.
“I’m hopeful. I’m expecting him to be in the lineup,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Friday. “What that looks like, I guess we’ll know when we see him out there. But with Freddie, I don’t doubt that he’ll be ready to go.”
If Freeman can not play, Roberts said Max Muncy will slide over to first base and Enrique Hernández will step in at third. The Dodgers could always pull Freeman for defense in the late innings. It would not be ideal, but in the postseason, getting 6-7 innings of Freeman is better than getting no innings of Freeman. That’s one way to get him in the lineup.
Now 35, Freeman authored a .282/.378/.476 batting line with 35 doubles and 22 home runs in 147 games this year. He has been one of the game’s great ironmen, playing 859 of 870 possible regular season games from 2018-23.
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