It turns out that Freddie Freeman played just nine innings at third base during his rehabilitation stint at Triple-A Gwinnett and got just one defensive chance. Then he was back with the Braves to play the position for the first time in his major league career on Tuesday against the Astros.
After practicing at his new position for three weeks and working with coach Ron Washington, Freeman said he “felt how I feel at first base, the feeling of wanting them to hit the ball to me.” It didn’t take long for him to get his wish.
Yuli Gurriel, the third Astros batter of the second inning, smacked a hard line drive down the third-base line. Freeman didn’t have a real shot at fielding the ball, which left Gurriel’s bat at 103.8 mph and appeared to spin away from Freeman.
Freeman got his first real chance when the next batter, Alex Bregman, hit a bouncing ball at him. Freeman fielded the ball cleanly, looked Marwin Gonzalez back to second base and then threw to first baseman Matt Adams for the second out.
“Obviously I wanted to get the first one out of the way,” Freeman said. “It was nice to get a nice, little easy hop.”
In the fifth inning, Astros third baseman Alex Bregman hit a hard line drive in Freeman’s direction. Freeman got his glove on the ball before it hopped into left field and down the line for a double.
“I felt like I was in the right position on every single one,” Freeman said. “I was always looking at ‘Wash’ and he would always say I was in the right spot. … I felt like I was in good position and had a good first step. I felt pretty good over there.”
Freeman got one more defensive chance during the game. He caught Josh Reddick’s pop up for the final out of the seventh inning.
Until Tuesday, Freeman had played first base for all 8,134 1/3 of his defensive innings in the major leagues. Before the rehab assignment Freeman hadn’t played anywhere but first base since he played third for five games as a 17-year-old in rookie ball, back in 2007.
Freeman approached the Braves about moving to third base so that Adams could stay in the lineup.
“It’s a different angle for me,” he said. “There were a lot more hot shots going over there than you do at first base. Hopefully I will keep playing pretty good defense and those hot shots will go into my glove.”
