by Cary Osborne
No National Leaguer was intentionally walked more times last season than Freddie Freeman. And of the 12 times he was given a free pass, 11 were to face Will Smith.
But the last two times Smith intentionally walked, the opponent chose Freeman as its poison, including on Friday at Dodger Stadium.
It wasn’t a wild thought — the Boston Red Sox favored the lefty-lefty matchup of left-handed reliever Brennan Bernardino against the left-handed hitting Freddie Freeman. They preferred loading the bases instead of facing Smith, who has been a lefty masher this season.
But the Red Sox didn’t know what was going on between the ears of one of baseball’s elite hitters.
Freeman lined out in his previous two plate appearances, with each instance telling him his timing was on.
Bernardino clung to the edge of the rubber and stood at an angle to where whatever came out of his hand would be difficult to track. But Freeman tracked the first pitch and fouled it off.
The next one he lined over the short wall in right field for a grand slam — the game-winning hit in the Dodgers’ 4–1 victory against the Red Sox on Friday in the second-half opener.
Freeman saw the intentional walk before him as no slight on him.
“I just like the opportunity to drive in runs,” Freeman said. “You can walk all the people you want. That’s part of the game. It’s strategy. Sinkerballer — throw a sinker in, I could roll it over, double play. It’s the right move. Sometimes it doesn’t work.”
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Freeman’s .238 average coming into the game against lefties is his lowest mark since 2015.
But this is still Freddie Freeman, who is now 19-for-37 as a Dodger with the bases loaded.
“In one moment in time, in one at-bat, I’ll take Freddie against anyone in any big spot, regardless of handedness,” said manager Dave Roberts.
This was trending toward a Dodger loss before the top of the eighth inning.
Gavin Stone had given the Dodgers five innings, having allowed one run on a Jarren Duran fifth-inning home run, three days after he was named the All-Star Game MVP.
The Dodgers had two hits through seven innings, and the Red Sox had a 75.5% win probability in the top of the eighth when left fielder Tyler O’Neill singled with one out.
Rafael Devers then followed flying out to Miguel Vargas in shallow left field. O’Neill slowly made his way back to first base when Vargas threw a laser to Freeman at first base to double up O’Neill and end the inning.
“When you make a play like that, it certainly spurs you, gets you a little bit excited, but it also takes another hitter out of play,” Roberts said.
Then Vargas started the bottom of the eight drawing an eight-pitch walk.
Two batters later, Shohei Ohtani hit a ground-rule double. Smith walked. Then Freeman changed the game.
“Miguel’s walk was a huge thing tonight. That can’t go unnoticed,” Freeman said. “That inning was really good for Miguel.”
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Over in Texas …
Clayton Kershaw built up to four innings pitching for Triple-A Oklahoma City on Friday. He allowed six hits and three runs, walked none and struck out two batters. Three of the hits were in the first inning. Kershaw threw 67 total pitches, 49 for strikes as he gets closer to his first start of the year for the Dodgers.
Roberts had said if all went well, there would be a conversation about if Kershaw’s next start would be in the big leagues.
“Ultimately it’s just where the team is at. Obviously, I’m not built up to 100 pitches, (would) love to come back whenever they need me but I don’t want to put the team in a bad spot, especially the way we’ve been grinding through the last few weeks,” Kershaw said. “I’d love to contribute, but also I get it. We’ll talk about it, see what happens.”
Roberts said after Friday’s game that Kershaw will throw his next between-start bullpen and then the Dodgers would make a decision. But he called Kershaw’s start on Friday “promising.”
Poison picked, and Freddie Freeman made it the wrong choice was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.