Freddie Freeman said his eyes feel fine, and Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said he’s seen some encouraging signs lately from his slumping first baseman.
And so Freeman was in the lineup Saturday, batting third, as he has been for every other Braves game this season. His 67 starts are two more than right fielder Jason Heyward’s next-highest total on the team this season.
Freeman is mired in an uncharacteristically long sluggish period for the player whose simple swing and opposite-field hitting approach made him the one Brave who was supposed to immune to such slumps, or at least as much as anyone could be immune.
Freeman hit .188 (16-for-85) in his past 23 games before Saturday with two homers, seven RBIs, 17 walks and 24 strikeouts, for a .324 on-base percentage.
Gonzalez was asked Saturday if he’d seen encouraging signs, any reason to believe Freeman might soon get back to his usual productivity.
“Yeah, I’ve seen some good at-bats,” he said. “The pace he was on in April — hell, he was hitting near .400. He’ll get it going again. I tell you what, I’ve seen him walk more in the last three days than when he was swinging the bat in April and May.”
In his first 18 games through April 20, Freeman hit .397 with five homers, 14 RBIs, a .481 OBP and .721 slugging percentage.
In 48 games since then he’d batted .227 (41-for-181) with six homers, 21 RBIs, 44 strikeouts, a .324 OBP and a .387 slugging percentage.
“I feel the same,” Freeman said this week when the team was in Colorado, adding that the dry-eye condition that’s affected him in the past hadn’t been a factor in nearly four weeks. “I’m not getting any results the last few weeks, but that’s baseball. Got to keep treading water and hopefully I’ll get hot here shortly.”
Gonzalez said he planned to give Freeman a day off during the current stretch of 17 games in 17 days without an off day in the schedule. Saturday was the ninth game in that stretch.
