Freddie Freeman has won one postseason game this year with a single – a Wild Card walk-off in the 13th inning against Cincinnati.
All well and good. But Freddie Freeman at the plate is bigger and better and louder than that.
Austin Riley has hit one homer since Sept. 5, none in this postseason. In fact, like Freeman, he’s had not so much as an extra base hit in October. But Riley has power written all over him, and sometimes it demands to be read.
Oh, and don’t forget Ozzie Albies. Never forget Ozzie Albies.
One - Freeman - homered in the first. The other two in the ninth as the Braves used a friendly, familiar offensive weapon - the long ball - to propel them past the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the NLCS, 5-1.
First, we were reminded that an MVP candidacy is not built on singles alone. It is constructed of moments like the first inning Monday.
It would be a mesmerizing match-up between the hard-throwing Dodgers starter Walker Buehler and Freeman, known to treat the best of fastballs with violent contempt.
With two strikes on Freeman, Buehler thought he could breeze a 97-mph fastball past the Braves first-baseman. It was once said of another Braves slugger, “Trying to throw a fastball by Henry Aaron is like trying to sneak sunrise by a rooster.” While Freeman is no Aaron, he does share an appreciation for velocity.
Buehler missed his spot up and in and instead left the pitch down in the strike zone. A place where Freeman feasts. He turned on the pitch, the crack of the bat as loud and alarming to the pitcher as the sound of squealing brakes and twisting metal is to a traffic cop. Freeman drove it 427 feet on a line into the rightfield seats, giving the Braves a 1-0 lead.
“That was big. That’s what Freddie does,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said.
So much for home runs being an unattainable goal at vast Globe Life Park in Arlington, Tex., the neutral site of this NLCS.
It was a much-needed power boost for the Braves star. Entering the game, Freeman was hitting a mere .167 with no extra-base hits in these pandemic playoffs. The game-winner against the Reds was a shrinking image in the rearview mirror.
For his career, it was Freeman’s second hit off Buehler in six at-bats. The other was a homer, too.
The pointed question Monday was just how long a lone run would hold up against the Dodgers, the most prolific scoring team in baseball.
Freeman’s home run would be the Braves only hit off Buehler until a pair of singles chased him in the sixth inning. And the Braves habit of throwing shutouts in October – four of them in their five postseason games entering Monday – ended when Max Fried yielded a solo home run to the Dodgers Enrique Hernandez in the fifth.
As the game settled into the kind of tense, stubborn pitching battle that postseason is famous for, the sound of Freeman’s homer seemed to grow louder and louder.
“It’s going to be hard to string hits together,” Freeman said, emphasizing the weight of the home run in the postseason. “That’s what the playoffs are all about. It usually comes down to the home run because getting three hits against a staff like this is difficult.”
The night balanced tensely for the longest time on the ledge of those two homers. Ultimately, the Braves took the lead thanks to the fact that Riley was in scoring position when he dug into the batter’s box.
Battling back from 0-2 count - as would Albies later - Riley hit the go-ahead homer of Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen, who gave up only one home run in 27 regular season appearances this season.
“Yeah, that’s a pretty good nine-hole hitter we got, huh?” Freeman smiled, referring to Riley’s place at the end of the lineup.
It was almost an out-of-body experience, and certainly the biggest home run of Riley’s brief career. A year ago, beset with injury and offensive struggles, he was left off the Braves postseason roster. And here he was Monday night, floating on a cloud. “I didn’t feel my legs as I was running around the bases, so it was a good feeling,” he said.
In the ninth inning, all heaven broke loose for the Braves. Albies added his two-run shot off reliever Jake McGee for good measure. And both of those did measure well as a matter of fact - Riley’s homer adjudged 448 feet, Albies' 420 feet.
Their manager is hoping this is just the electroshock to the system these young hitters needed as the Braves continue what looms as a tight, difficult series against the Dodgers. “I don’t know that it’s going to do anything but help them. This is a situation they’ve never been in, shoot a lot of us haven’t,” Snitker said. “And it’s got to be good for them mentally to do what they did in tonight’s game and realize it is just a baseball game. I think it will be huge for them going forward.”
“Going forward,” Riley confirmed, “it definitely boosts the confidence.”
They know first-hand that no wall in the postseason is unreachable.
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