MIAMI – His mind was admittedly more willing than his right wrist, but Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman said the latter was good enough to play in Friday's series opener against the Marlins and their ace Jose Fernandez.
Freeman was back in the lineup after coming off the bench Wednesday at New York to hit a seventh-inning, two-run, pinch-hit double that gave the Braves a 3-2 lead against the Mets, then a mammoth, opposite-field, tiebreaking three-run homer in the ninth for a 6-3 win that clinched the series.
“Add (facing Fernandez) on top of everything,” Freeman said, smiling. “But I’m not going to sit on the bench. I don’t think it’s going to get worse, but obviously it’s not going to get better until the offseason.”
He plans to continue playing the rest of the season, which was down to nine games remaining including Friday.
“I can still swing, but you’ll see grimaces as the games go on,” he said. “It’s going to hurt, but I know it’s going to hurt. I think I’m going to be able to get through games.”
The Braves were off Thursday, but a day to rest didn’t reduce the pain in Freeman’s wrist, which has ached for much of the season and landed him on the disabled list for 6 ½ weeks in June and July.
“It’s about the same,” he said. “It’s alright. It’s attached. I won’t be taking batting practice tonight, I’m just going to take enough swings to be able to go out there and play. It’s going to be a battle and grind to get through these nine (remaining) games, but I’m going to give it my best effort to go out there and play.”
With the Braves long since eliminated from playoff contention, some fans have asked why Freeman doesn’t just shut it down for the rest of the season.
“That’s not going to happen,” Freeman said, matter-of-factly. “I don’t care how far we are out, how many games under .500, if I’m able to play I’m going to play. Obviously I am in pain, it’s just not enough to keep me out of the lineup. I’m going to play all the way till the end.”
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said the team’s trainers and medical staff would continue to monitor Freeman’s condition and check with him each day before making out the lineup.
“If he needs it, give him a day to get treatment,” Gonzalez said. “Sometimes it may be more sore than others and we’ll give him a day off.”
Freeman didn’t need to swing a bat Friday to know the wrist was going to hurt once he did.
“(This is a) little too much information, but you know when you take a bar of soap and try to wash your back and it kind of hurts, you just know it’s just not fully healed, it’s not normal,” he said. “I’m just going to take enough swings before the game today, go out there and play, and hopefully have the same results as Wednesday.
“On Wednesday before I went into the game I took about 11 swings in the (indoor batting) cage. I obviously didn’t take batting practice or anything like that. And I’ll probably take 10-15 swings in the cage today before the game tonight, hopefully be able to warm up the obliques enough, just get everything loose to be able to go out there and play. But other than that, I’m going to try to keep everything to a minimum, and hopefully that’s enough.”
Gonzalez admired Freeman’s desire to continue playing every day, with the Braves playing for little more than pride and the desire to finish a disappointing season with some positive momentum. Lately they’ve done that, winning five of their past six games before Friday, after losing 26 of the previous 30.
“That’s his character,” Gonzalez said. “He wants to play, he wants to compete. He knows what his name in that lineup means to our lineup. And if he feels like he can manage it, manage the pain, he wants it. He wants in with a lot of stuff. I think he learned that from Chipper (Jones) and some of the (other former Braves veterans like Brian) McCann. They want to play. That’s what they signed up for.”
Freeman spent big parts of June and July on the DL and received multiple injections for a bone bruise in his wrist. Soon after after returning, he had another stint on the 15-day DL for a strained oblique in his side.
He was on a tear before the initial wrist injury, batting .327 with eight homers , 29 RBIs and a .565 slugging percentage in 38 games through June 13. But during his last four games before going on the DL through Tuesday, Freeman hit .227 with four homers, 20 RBIs and a .344 slugging percentage in 47 games.
Still, there’s been progress at the plate in the past week despite the pain. He was 6-for-18 with three doubles, a homer and eight RBIs in his past six games before Friday.
The Braves were 5-1 with a 2.04 ERA in their past six games before Friday, after going 4-26 with a 6.58 ERA in their previous 30.
“It’s a little too late, but it’s finally come full circle,” Freeman said. “We’ve been playing really good baseball and it’s just nice to see. The young guys have gotten their feet wet and they’re starting to get a little bit more comfortable and starting to see some good signs. (Friday’s starter Ryan) Weber’s been throwing the ball great and hopefully he can continue it tonight, because we’re definitely going to need it against Fernandez.”
The Braves were 6-0 this season at Marlins Park before Friday, but none of those games were against Fernandez, who was 16-0 with a 1.11 ERA in 25 career home starts before Friday. Fernandez missed more than half of this season after returning from a 14-month Tommy John surgery rehab in July and going on the DL again with a biceps strain.
