Freddie Freeman has shown a flair for the dramatic during his five seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The veteran slugger hit another walk-off home run to end a pitchers’ duel with the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night, lifting the Dodgers to a 1-0 win.
Freeman led off the bottom of the ninth facing former teammate Kirby Yates, who took over for Sam Bachman. Yates fell behind on a three-balls, one-strike count before Freeman fouled off a fastball on the outside of the plate for strike two.
The Angels reliever then came back with another fastball, but left too much of it in the middle of the zone. Freeman pounced on the gift and crushed it deep to right-center field for the game-winner.
“I missed a 3-1 fastball and against Kirby, you gotta look up because of his splitter,” Freeman said after the game. “So I was looking up, trying not to swing at the splitter and luckily, I was able to get the fastball.”
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Prior to Freeman’s home run, the Dodgers only managed two hits against Angels starter Reid Detmers over six innings and didn’t get a hit versus Chase Silseth and Bachman in relief.
Roki Sasaki was outstanding for the Dodgers, allowing two hits in seven innings with two walks and 10 strikeouts. That was the first double-digit strikeout game of his MLB career, as his fastball topped out at 100.6 mph. Edgardo Henriquez, Tanner Scott and Blake Treinen followed with two innings of scoreless relief.
Freeman’s walk-off home run was the third of his Dodgers career and the first he’s hit during the regular season. (He’s hit six walk-off homers in his 17-year MLB career.) The veteran’s first two walk-off homers in Dodger Blue came in the postseason.
The first was in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series, a grand slam that gave the Dodgers a 10-inning win over the New York Yankees. Freeman repeated his walk-off heroics in Game 3 of last year’s World Series, ending an 18-inning epic for a 6-5 victory.
The win improved the Dodgers’ record to 41-23. Combined with the Arizona Diamondbacks’ 14-1 defeat to the Washington Nationals on Friday, that increased the Dodgers’ first-place lead in the NL West to 7.5 games.
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