Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman is expected to be a “100 percent go” when his team opens up the World Series at home against the New York Yankees on Friday, despite still dealing with a badly sprained right ankle that has limited him throughout the postseason and kept him out of three games.
As part of a round of video conference interviews Tuesday (the ballpark is closed to the media until Thursday), the former MVP outlined that his ankle is in “a good place” after getting a few days off from running. He still has not tried to run on it, but was expected to go through the rest of his routine and rounds of hitting as the Dodgers continue their World Series preparations.
It’s been nearly four weeks since Freeman rolled his ankle, an injury that doctors told him would take four to six weeks to heal — if he hadn’t played on it. And despite logging four hits in 14 at-bats during the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres, things took a downturn during the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets. Freeman went 3-for-18 in the series. He still hasn’t logged an extra-base hit. And in the final game he played in, Game 5, Freeman acknowledged that his swing was starting to be compromised.
“I kind of roll on my front foot when I hit and it’s not able to roll right now,” Freeman said. The left-handed hitter’s front foot is his right one, the injured one. “It’s more just trying to work through that and find a spot where I can. … I hit the ground and I usually go in my front foot and I turn and in Game 5 I was hitting and then spinning because my ankle was not allowing me to do what I wanted it to do.”
Freeman’s ankle progressed enough after an off day before Game 6 that he was able to get in multiple rounds of hitting and appeared to correct some of the issues with his swing he felt predated the ankle injury. Running less, he said, should help promote even more healing before Game 1.
“I don’t doubt the fact that he’ll be in there for Game 1,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Hopefully with these days (off), we’ve gotten ourselves out of the woods and we can manage him throughout the World Series.”
The pitching plans
Jack Flaherty has had mixed results this postseason. (Robert Edwards / Imagn Images)
Jack Flaherty will start Game 1 for the Dodgers on Friday, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto lined up to follow him in Game 2 on Saturday.
“There’s no bigger stage than this,” Flaherty said in his Tuesday videoconference. “It’s what we all wanted as kids, the position we want to be in. I have no words for it. I’m just looking forward to Friday.”
Lining up the two this way is in part due to scheduling — starting Flaherty in Game 1 will allow him to return for a potential Game 5 on regular rest, with Yamamoto lined up to return for Game 6 on his version of “regular” rest (five days). Where a bullpen game fills in is still to be determined, with Roberts saying the club is still discussing whether Walker Buehler would start Game 3 (and be lined up for a potential Game 7) or Game 4, both in The Bronx.
The Dodgers will need to get some more consistency out of their key trade deadline acquisitions. Flaherty’s three turns this postseason have included a dominant start (seven scoreless innings in Game 1 of the NLCS), a mixed start (four runs in 5 1/3 innings in Game 2 of the NLDS) and a disastrous one (eight runs in three innings in Game 5 of the NLCS, his most recent outing).
His velocity — which started to tick down over the final weeks of the regular season — continues to fluctuate, as has his command, which Flaherty attributed to his mechanics.
“It’s usually just timing,” Flaherty said. “I think going throughout this year I’ve had some starts go like that where it’s kind of up and down and I was able to make corrections going into the next one, maybe not in that moment because it just comes down to timing and the way everything is in sync. Sometimes you start pushing the ball or your arm gets kind of lost in space and you don’t get the same drive behind it or, for me, my lower half gets off a little bit.
“At a certain point, when you get in games like that and you don’t feel quite in sync, it just becomes, you just have to compete and give it everything you’ve got no matter where your stuff is. At that point I stop paying attention to velocity and stuff and just try to execute with what I’ve got.”
The bullpen
Engineering a bullpen game becomes much simpler for the Dodgers if their full complement of relievers is available. There remains a chance that’s coming. Roberts said Wednesday that Alex Vesia (intercostal injury) and Brusdar Graterol (shoulder inflammation) could be available in the World Series, with each being a “game-time decision” to be added to the roster by Friday’s deadline.
Vesia appears the more likely of the two, having been scheduled to face hitters on Tuesday. The Dodgers’ most valuable left-hander this season, he could be a key weapon against some of the Yankees’ left-handed hitters, namely Juan Soto.
The rest of the roster
Miguel Rojas, who played through a torn adductor for months at the end of the regular season, could also return to the roster for the World Series. Rojas was removed from the roster ahead of the NLCS after the Dodgers felt the issue compromised his defensive range at shortstop. The move aligned a pair of key contributors for the Dodgers in the round, with Tommy Edman sliding to shortstop and winning NLCS MVP and Kiké Hernández becoming a regular and continuing what has been a prolific postseason run.
(Top photo of Freddie Freeman: Harry How / Getty Images)
