MIAMI – When Braves bench coach Walt Weiss predicted to manager Brian Snitker on Thursday afternoon that Freddie Freeman was about to heat up at the plate, Freeman actually was already quite warm.
But Freeman has indeed raised his offensive sizzle to another level as Weiss predicted.
After posting a career-best five hits Thursday in a 5-for-5 game that included a two-run homer in a 9-2 series-opening win against the Marlins, Freeman went off again Saturday with two homers on a 3-for-4, three-RBI night in a10-5 win, a performance that also included a key walk by Freeman to start Braves’ decisive two-run eighth inning.
The left-handed slugger hit both homers Saturday off Marlins lefty starter Jarlin Garcia, making it half of Freeman’s eight homers this season that have come against lefties.
Righties, lefties, hard throwers, soft-tossers – Freeman hits them all.
“He’s going to hit, it doesn’t matter,” Snitker said. “The guy’s an elite hitter. Has been for a while. I can’t say any more about him, he’s as good as it gets.”
As for Weiss’ prediction, Snitker said, “He hit that on the head. It’s bound to happen with (Freeman). Man, the ball he hit to center field – that’s a long way out there.”
The center-field blast was a two-run shot in the fifth inning. Freeman’s first homer of the night was a first-pitch solo shot in the opening inning, a drive that smashed off the second-deck façade in right field.
Freeman has raised his batting average from .301 to .331 in the first three games of a four-game series that ends Sunday afternoon at Marlins Park.
He’s hit .372 (29-for-78) in his past 19 games with 13 extra-base hits (six homers), 18 RBIs, a .415 OBP and .705 slugging percentage. So it’s not like Freeman was struggling before the Braves came to Miami.
However, he’s 8-for-12 with three homers, five RBIs, two walks and no strikeouts in three games in the series. Asked if he felt any different the past few days, Freeman said, “No, I feel the same. Just going out there and trying to put good at-bats on it. The last couple of days the ball’s been going over the fence.”
His two homers helped the Braves build a 4-1 lead Saturday, but the Marlins tied it in the bottom of the fifth when they got four unearned runs off Braves rookie starter Mike Soroka following a fielding error by third baseman Jose Bautista with two out and the bases loaded. One run scored on that play and three more when Derek Dietrich followed with a bases-clearing double that gave the Marlins a 5-4 lead.
“That was early in the game, none of us were worried,” Freeman said. “That was a tough inning for us, but Jose came back with a big home run there and got us right back in the game.”
Bautista led off the sixth inning with a homer, his first in 24 at-bats for the Braves since the 37-year-old former Blue Jays slugger signed a minor league deal and was brought up from Triple-A, after spending a few weeks in the minors to get at-bats since he wasn’t with any team in spring training. He looked shaky on a couple of plays including the costly error in the fifth.
“It felt better that it was, you know, somewhat of a redemption to the error,” Bautista said of his homer. “It’s good to get the team back to an even game at that point.”
The score was still tied, 5-5, when Freeman led off the eighth inning with a walk. Nick Markakis followed with a single, and one out later Ender Inciarte worked a 13-pitch walk to load the bases against Marlins reliever Drew Steckenrider.
Tyler Flowers followed with an eight-pitch walk against Steckenrider that brought in the go-ahead run, and Johan Camargo drew another bases-loaded walk against Junichi Tazawa for a two-run lead.
“Ender’s at-bat was the game-changer for us right there,” Freeman said. “He was pumping heaters and he kept fouling them off and fouling them off. That was the first off-speed he threw the whole inning right there and Ender was able to lay off. And obviously Tyler’s at-bat, too, to give us the lead.”
Snitker said, “Those were unbelievable at-bats. I told Ender his at-bat might have been the best at-bat of the whole year, the pitches he fouled off. Just a huge at-bat. Tyler, too. That was a professional at-bat there to lay off the pitch he did on 3-2. It was just really good the way we lost the lead and the guys kept fighting back, battling back to pull it out.”
The Braves blew the game open in the ninth with a Charlie Culberson RBI triple -- after Markakis had singled for his fourth consecutive multi-hit game to raise his average to .346 – and a two-run homer from Inciarte.
