PHOENIX — Three doubles, two homers and seven RBIs in two nights would be fairly solid team totals, but that was the damage wrought by Freddie Freeman alone against Arizona pitching in one-sided Braves wins Thursday and Friday.
With three hits Friday, including a pair of RBI doubles in a 9-1 win, the Braves’ 22-year-old first baseman continued a torrid stretch in which he was 10-for-17 (.588) with three homers and 12 RBIs in a four-game Braves winning streak before Saturday.
He had more RBIs in four games than any other major leaguer had in the past 10 days.
His compact strong and opposite-field power have created a buzz in Arizona, where one American League scout raised his eyebrows and said something along the lines of “wow” when describing what he had seen from Freeman in the first two games of the four-game series with the Diamondbacks.
A Diamondbacks broadcaster asked Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez how a player as tall as Freeman (6-foot-5) could have such a quick, compact stroke and so much “whip” with his bat. In each of the first two games at Chase Field, Freeman powered opposite-field drives down the left-field line (one for a homer, another for a double) and pulled balls down the right-field line.
“I was just trying to stay on pitches and not miss mistakes,” said Freeman, whose four-day hitting binge raised his average from .162 to .296, and added considerably more fuel to a Braves surge that has surpassed any other by the team in recent seasons.
The Braves hit .358 with 42 runs and seven homers during a four-game winning streak before Saturday, and they won nine of their previouis 10 games while batting .302 with 14 homers and 74 runs. That’s nearly 7 1/2 runs per game over that 10-game stretch — from a team that hit .165 with 10 total runs while losing its first four games this season.
“It’s awesome,” Freeman said of the Braves’ hot stretch, which lately featured strong pitching as well as hitting.
The Braves got 7 1/3 scoreless innings from Brandon Beachy on Friday, after eight innings of five-hit ball with nine strikeouts from Mike Minor on Thursday. Beachy has a majors-best 0.47 ERA.
“You know the Phillies don’t have [Ryan] Howard and [Chase] Utley, so you want to take advantage and win some games,” Freeman added. “And the way the Nationals are playing, we can’t lose ground. We’re playing great right now, and we have to keep that going.”
Freeman was the National League Rookie of the Year runner-up behind teammate Craig Kimbrel last season, hitting .282 with 32 doubles, 21 homers, 76 RBIs and a .346 on-base percentage. Teammates, including veterans Brian McCann and Eric Hinske, said during spring training that Freeman’s simple swing and opposite-field power all but assured he would avoid a “sophomore slump.”
First-year hitting coach Greg Walker gushed over Freeman’s swing during spring training, and Walker had to restrain himself Saturday when asked about Freeman’s performance.
“I’m not going to tell you what I really think because I don’t want to put pressure on him,” said Walker, who thinks his potential is enormous. “I mean, I don’t want to make a drastic statement.”
Freeman hit .162 with one RBI and 13 strikeouts in the Braves’ first nine games, but has been on fire since he was rested for one game Monday. According to Elias Sports Bureau, he became the third Brave to have at least eight extra-base hits and 12 RBIs in a four-game span since 1920, the first year that RBIs were officially recorded. The others: McCann in 2006 and Joe Adcock in 1954.
“Early in the year when we started off in New York, he was just swinging,” Walker said. “But now he’s been finding pitches every day that he can hit. He’s been very impressive. ... Somebody asked me the other day was I worried about him. I said of all the young players I’ve coached, there’s nothing to worry about. He’s going to hit [and] hit a lot.”
The Diamondbacks certainly don’t need to be convinced. Before Saturday, Freeman had a .481 average (13-for-27) with four doubles, three homers and nine RBIs in seven career games against Arizona, including three-hit games in three of his four games at Chase Field.
Freeman smiled and noted the presence of several family members who drove over from his native California for the series, including his father, brother, stepmother and sister-in-law.
“I think I just like that my family’s here,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun, I always play well in front of my family. They made the drive over here, six hours, so I kind of want to satisfy them a little bit.”
