KISSIMMEE, Fla. – Two days after giving folks a scare when he left a game with pain in his right hand, Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman returned to the lineup Sunday and nearly hit a home run off the same left-hander he homered against earlier in the week.
Freeman struck out looking in his two plate appearances against Astros starter Doug Fister, then hit an approximate 400-foot flyout in his last plate appearance of the day against lefty Neal Cotts with two on to end the fourth inning of the Braves’ 7-6 loss at Osceola County Stadium.
Center fielder Carlos Gomez leapt to catch it with his glove at the top of the wall.
“I wasn’t agreeing with some of the calls today, but I felt good,” Freeman said, flashing a smile he never displays if he’s worried about his health. “I think I swung the bat twice today and it didn’t hurt both those times. I felt good. Get back out there with four (at-bats) tomorrow, stretch it out a little bit more, then take a day off and I’ve got three days in a row Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.”
Freeman has been on an ease-into-things schedule laid out by the Braves training staff, designed to avoid a recurrence of the nagging wrist injury that sidelined him for 44 games in 2015 and reduced his productivity even when he was in the lineup during the second half of the season.
Soreness lingered in the wrist for nearly three months in the offseason and he didn’t swing a bat until Dec. 31, then didn’t hit overhanded pitching until just over three weeks ago.
He had two homers, a double and five walks in his first 12 plate appearances in Grapefruit League games and hadn’t had any discomfort until Friday, when he felt a twinge on top of his hand when he checked a swing and took himself out of the game after the second-inning at-bat. The wrist was not the issue.
The pain was gone less than 20 minutes later, after a Braves physical therapist worked on the hand. The pain had been centered around a spot where Freeman received one of the multiple cortisone and other injections he got while trying to get through the injury last season and in the fall.
“When it was wrist last year, that’s the big part, because I’m very violent with my (swing) follow-through with my wrist,” Freeman said, “and I knew right away this time that it wasn’t my wrist. I think, from talking the last couple of days, I think it’s just a little scar tissue. Just got to get it worked out again, because I’ve had a lot of needles into my hand and wrist the last six, seven months. Once we get that all broken up, I think we’ll be not having to worry about this anymore.
“Just got to keep grinding it out, getting some more work in there, and hopefully I can get all the scar tissue worked out.”
In the meantime, the Braves like what they’re seeing from Freeman, who had an opposite-field homer against Cotts on Wednesday.
“Yeah, I usually do better against lefties early on because I’m just trying to stay in(side the pitch),” he said. “For some reason when I get comfortable against righties I start pulling off against lefties. But I feel good right now, and hopefully I can continue the success I’ve had against lefties and start having some success against righties, because they seem to be getting me out right now.
“Hopefully just stay healthy. Just got to get through the rest of spring training healthy.”
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said, “Fister ran a couple of two-seamers back at him for strike three. I’m glad he swung the bat and almost hit it out of the ballpark (against Cotts). Maybe he did and Gomez caught it out of the ballpark. I was glad to see him swing the bat there.”
