Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman became the ninth player in franchise history with 200 career home runs, joining that exclusive group by homering in a fourth consecutive game Sunday.
“It means I was lucky enough to get called up early in my career,” Freeman said of reaching the 200-homer milestone at age 29.
"One day I'll look back at it and it'll be pretty special, but right now I'm just getting over a loss," he said after the Braves fell 3-2 to the Milwaukee Brewers in 10 innings. All five runs in the game were produced by bases-empty home runs, including Freeman's on a full-count pitch from Brewers starting pitcher Brandon Woodruff in the seventh inning.
Immediately ahead of Freeman on the Braves’ career home-run list are Javy Lopez, with 214 career homers for the team, and Bob Horner, with 215. Freeman is on pace to pass them this season.
He has 11 home runs through the Braves’ first 47 games, including his career-long streak of four consecutive games with homers. “Getting pitches to hit and not missing them, there’s not much else that goes into it,” Freeman said of the streak. “Just trying to put good swings on the baseball and stay up through the middle of the field.”
The leader in career home runs with the Braves is, of course, Hank Aaron, who hit 733 of his 755 with the team. Next on the franchise’s home-run leader-board: Eddie Mathews with 493, Chipper Jones with 468, Dale Murphy with 371, Andruw Jones with 368, Joe Adcock with 239, Horner, Lopez and Freeman.
A Braves fan retrieved the baseball that Freeman deposited into the left-center field seats Sunday and returned it to him. Now he just has to figure out what to do with it.
“My dad has been trying to give me back all my memorabilia,” Freeman said. “I usually give it all to him. He doesn’t like the pressure of having to keep it in his house. We’ll see.”
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