Although the Los Angeles Dodgers fell short of sweeping the Houston Astros, their comeback to force extra innings included multiple encouraging aspects, with Freddie Freeman achieving a personal milestone among them.
Freeman’s double in the sixth inning snapped an 0-for-11 drought, and he delivered another in the eighth that scored Mookie Betts and led to Will Smith’s game-tying home run. Freeman’s second double of the game also gave him 2,000 career hits.
Dodgers fans celebrated the team not only erasing their deficit but Freeman’s accomplishment. A “Freddie” chant reverberated throughout Dodger Stadium as Freeman stood on second base and the Astros made a pitching change. He tipped his helmet as a show of appreciation.
“That’s special,” Freeman said of the reaction.
He previously reached 300 career home runs this season, which came on a grand slam, although in another game the Dodgers lost. That factor wasn’t lost on Freeman.
“I seem to get these milestones in losses,” he recalled. “That’s what Doc said during his little speech afterwards, that it’s a little curse.
“But just seeing how happy my dad, my stepmom, my wife and my kids were for me, just makes it special. Obviously the fans have embraced my family and I since the day we got here. They made another special memory for the Freeman family again. Dodgers fans, they never disappoint.
“Another special day and one I’ll never forget. Took long enough, but glad it happened at home.”
Freeman had been stuck on 1,998 career hits since his home run against Shohei Ohtani in the finale of the Freeway Series. He personally didn’t put much thought into coming up with two more hits, but Charlie made sure it remained front of mind.
“My son kept reminding me. He was really wanting me to do it at home. Chelsea was saying they might have to go on the road trip if I couldn’t get any hits here,” Freeman said.
“I wasn’t really thinking about it, because I’m hoping to get more than 2,000 hits in my career, so it’s not really something I was really thinking about. If this was 3,000, I’d tell you yes. Hopefully we’re doing this again in six or seven years.”
Freeman is the seventh player to reach 2,000 career hits while with the Dodgers, and the first to do so since Adrián González on August 22, 2017.
Freddie Freeman part of rare group with 2,000 hits and 300 homers
Freeman additionally is only the 98th player in MLB history with at least 2,000 hits and 300 career home runs. Not one to bask in personal accolades, that statistic gave the steady veteran reason to pause.
“That hits a little bit,” Freeman said. “This game has been going on for a long time. When I did the 300 (home runs) and 1,000 (hits), I think it was like 150-something, so I thought, ‘Oh, that’s pretty cool.’ Now you just dropped it into two numbers.
“To be under 100, it’s hard for me to put into words right now. When you do stuff like this, it’s all the hard work that I think about with my dad back in the day. All the batting practice he’s thrown, it’s not just me, it’s him. It’s all the sacrifice he made, my family has made.
“It’s just special to achieve some of these things. For fans, for my teammates, coaching staff, to appreciate it as we’re going along, that makes it even more special. To be the 98th player to do that, that’s hard to put into words.
“It’s just really, really cool I was able to do it with my family here.”
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