San Diego, CA
Tom Krasovic: Freddie Freeman shows he can still swing it in Dodgers’ blowout win over Padres
Let’s begin here: Freddie Freeman is a baseball god, OK?
Cut the Padres some slack for their 8-2 loss Sunday to the Dodgers that nixed a three-game sweep and tied up the National League West’s top spot — which actually isn’t knotted because Los Angeles holds a tiebreaker.
The Padres were in trouble once Freeman found his “A” game, which for hitters of his era, belongs on the tip-top shelf.
Homering twice and also drawing a big-time walk that led to a run, Freeman made sure the Padres would not hold his team to one run for the third game in a row, despite more good work from ace Nick Pivetta.
What lifts Freeman above other very good hitters?
His concise swing path — inside out — recalls Tony Gwynn, yet the lefty has home run power to all fields. Although this baseball era is too fast for many old hitters due the abundance of velocity and spin, Freeman is still raking as he nears his 36th birthday.
Baseball men marvel that the gangly Freeman, who’s 6-foot-4, somehow maintains a precise stroke.
“I wouldn’t teach anyone to do it like he does it,” a pitching coach told me two years ago. “He’s a freak.”
Age may have eroded some of his visual skills. His strikeout rate this year, though pretty good, is his highest in eight years.
But age can’t harm his ability to read pitchers.
The walk Freeman drew off Pivetta in the first inning owed to Freeman laying off tough pitches.
The six-pitch walk loaded the bases with none out, sending L.A. to a 1-0 lead.
The Padres had gone ahead 2-1 when Freeman batted in the sixth with one out. And by then Pivetta had clicked into ace mode, having retired nine in a row.
Freeman carved Pivetta’s first pitch, a curveball, down the left-field line, meaning he stayed back on Pivetta’s slowest pitch (77 mph).
Would the flick-shot land one of his famous inside-out doubles?
It tailed foul, a foot wide of the chalk.
Pivetta came back with a much speedier pitch. A fastball, it was 17 mph quicker.
Neither tardy nor hasty, Freeman met the misplaced 94-mph fastball flush with perfect launch.
As the ball soared beyond the right-center field wall, if Padres pitcher Nestor Cortes flashed back and grimaced in the dugout, it would have made sense.
Cortes threw an inside fastball in Game 1 of the World Series last October that Freeman hit into the right-field pavilion at Dodger Stadium for the first walk-off grand slam in the event’s history. It began a run in which Freeman homered in four consecutive games, extending his World Series home run streak to six games.
The baseball god version of Freeman still exists. And if any doubts lingered in Sunday’s game, Freeman chased them by homering again off reliever Wandy Peralta. A lefty reliever, Peralta allows a long ball once every 70 at-bats. The sequence: slider for a strike, sinker for a foul ball, changeup for a home run.
Seamhead stuff
Padres relievers held L.A. to one run in six innings over the series’ first two games.
But Pivetta’s replacement, Jeremiah Estrada, gave up a three-run home run to rookie catcher Dalton Rushing after allowing two Dodgers to reach base.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said if lefty Adrian Morejon had been brought in to face Rushing, he would’ve sent up right-handed Will Smith, L.A.s’ main catcher.
Smith is a much better hitter than Rushing.
The Dodgers had batted .368 with four home runs off Estrada. But the righty never faced Rushing, whose .505 OPS in 115 plate appearances was poor.
With Shohei Ohtani on deck, the Padres sought an inning-ending double play.
Estrada tried for it by throwing five sliders or split-fastballs rather than his No. 1 pitch, a fastball that pushes 100 mph.
Rushing didn’t hit the desired grounder, then let pass Estrada’s first fastball, loading the count. Opting for another a slider, Estrada dangled it. Rushing pulled it for his third home run.
“Baseball ain’t easy,” Estrada said.
Padres fandom has its rough moments, too.
Roberts said a Padres fan wearing a Fernando Tatis Jr. jersey seated near L.A’s on-deck circle gave Ohtani a lot of guff, reminding the slugger of his struggles against the Padres in the series.
Ohtani answered with a home run in the top of the ninth. Then he went to the fan and slapped him on the hand.
With 31 games to go, the Padres will try to win their first National West title since Bruce Bochy’s final San Diego team edged L.A. in 2006. It’s hard to argue with the math of Padres hitter Gavin Sheets, who quipped that a 31-0 finish should get it done. “The atmosphere was great,” Sheets said of the three-game series. “It was good baseball to see.”
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