Dodgers' Freeman gets 2,000th hit with double against Astros

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman got his 2,000th hit, reaching the milestone with a double in the eighth inning of a 6-5 loss to the Houston Astros in 11 innings Sunday night,

With a sizable family contingent in attendance, Freeman’s sharp line drive to right field was his second double of the game and drove in Mookie Betts, making him the 295th player in major league history to reach the mark.

“It’s special,” Freeman said. “I seem to get these milestones in losses. … But, no, just seeing how happy my dad, my stepmom, my wife, my kids were for me, it just makes it special. And obviously the fans have embraced my family and I since the day we got here, so they made another special memory for the Freeman family again. Dodger fans usually never disappoint, so another special day. One I’ll never forget. Took long enough, but I’m glad it happened at home.”

Freeman picked up his 300th home run earlier this season in a 16-8 loss at St. Louis on May 18th. Combining the two feats, he is the 98th player with 2,000 hits and 300 homers.

“There’s what, 16,000, 17,000 people to play this game, and to be under 100 (to do something), it’s hard for me to be able to put it into words,” he said. “But when you do stuff like this, it’s just all the hard work that I think about with my dad back in the day, all the batting practice he’s thrown. It’s not just me. It’s him. It’s all the sacrifice he’s made, my family’s made, and it’s just special to achieve some of these things.”

Freeman played in his 1,801 game, becoming the seventh player to reach 2,000 hits as a member of the Dodgers. In addition to 306 homers, he has 441 career doubles, including a league-leading 27 this season.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts felt Freeman had been pressing to reach the milestone at home as he went hitless in seven at-bats through the first two games of the weekend series.

“I’ve been grinding quite a bit this whole month, and I just haven’t felt good,” Freeman said. “Unfortunately, that’s baseball. It’s just kind of how the ebb and flows of a season go.”

After getting a double in the sixth inning, Freeman knew he was back on track.

“I finally felt it on that one,” he said. “Of course that’s usually how it happens, another one comes next at-bat.”

Freeman, 33, spent his first 12 seasons with Atlanta after the Braves selected him in the second round of the 2007 draft. He had 1,704 hits in 1,565 games for the Braves before the Orange County native joined the Dodgers as a free agent before the 2022 season.

“Hits mean a lot to me,” he said. “Everyone views success differently in their careers and how they go about it, but hits and average, that is what I care about. If I have a lot of hits and I have a good average, that means I’m getting on base a lot for me team and we’re able to score a lot of runs.”