Freddie Freeman injury: A beautiful visit to the Dodgers mound brought calm

LOS ANGELES — As the long, six-month baseball season stretches into the seventh in October, the attrition increases so no team can be at 100 percent.

The most visible injuries for the now NLCS-bound Dodgers are not the cadre of starting pitchers who are on the injured list, but rather first baseman Freddie Freeman, who has a 17-day long right ankle sprain, and shortstop Miguel Rojas , who missed the He battled the final two games of the NLDS with a torn adductor muscle that bothered him for most of the second half. There are others too.

“I'm not putting anything out there, but a lot of guys are going through a lot right now,” third baseman Max Muncy said Friday night, sitting in champagne in the victorious Dodgers' locker room at Dodger Stadium. “No one makes excuses, everyone goes out there and tries to find a way to win a game.”

The Dodgers took a cautious approach with Freeman, who sprained his right ankle on September 26th. He skipped the final weekend series of the regular season at Colorado and took advantage of the team's bye after the wild card round. He started four of the five games in the NLDS, heavily medicated and buoyed by two days off last week. Freeman left Game 2 due to ankle discomfort and skipped all gameday activities in Game 4, effectively giving him two days off before Game 5.

“I said it after Game 4: We can’t ask Freddie to keep doing what he’s doing,” Muncy said. “Tonight we all said to Freddie, 'We've got you.'”

Freeman hit another ball hard in the series finale, driving 101.1 mph down the right field line in the first inning, usually a prototypical double. But even though he was slowed down considerably by his heavily taped right ankle, that was just one on Friday.

“He's a warrior, man,” second baseman Gavin Lux said. “He's out here playing his ass off, stealing bases and making plays. They make them not like him anymore.”

An old baseball saying goes that whether you're a rookie, someone playing a new position, or an injured player, the ball will find you. This was the case in Game 5, when the Padres had four different balls land at first base in the first six innings. The pitchers — Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the first three grounders and Evan Phillips — all sprinted to first base like rookies, trying to impress during pitcher-fielding practice in spring training.

“Yoshinobu did a great job. Freddie gives us everything out there,” Phillips said. “Hopefully, with what he’s given us, he’ll keep getting healthier.”

The final play of the sixth inning was the toughest play, with Freeman hitting wide to his right, which was probably the limit of his range given his current condition. Phillips was there in time to cover.

Then something strange happened. Catcher Will Smith went to the mound to talk to Phillips, who at that point retired his first two batters. He would retire the next three as well, but this visit to the mound was not for Phillips.

“Back in the day, when there was no limit on mound visits, it was done to give the pitcher a break,” Muncy said. “We were all like, ‘Hey, let’s take a breather. This is for Freddie, not Evan.'”

Muncy, Lux and shortstop Tommy Edman attended the mound conference. But Freeman stayed at first base. Lux said he had never seen anything like this before.

“This is usually to give the pitcher a breather,” Phillips said. “And at one point I even joked: 'I need a few more seconds here.'”

Much like an umpire taking extra time to get new baseballs or freshen up home plate when a catcher is damaged by a foul tip, this mound visit was part of baseball's beautiful dance, an unheralded moment that, thankfully, doesn't go under disappeared from the radar.