LOS ANGELES — Freddie Freeman pulled into Dodger Stadium at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, a good 6½ hours before first pitch, and fans were already lined up at entrances to ensure they’d be among the 40,000 to receive bobblehead dolls commemorating the first baseman’s walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of last October’s World Series.
“It was kind of crazy,” said Freeman, the 2024 World Series MVP who came off the injured list for the series opener against the Chicago Cubs. “I do appreciate it. This is really cool.”
Freeman caught the ceremonial first pitch from his 8-year-old son, Charlie, and was serenaded by spirited chants of “Fred-die! Fred-die!” before his first at-bat, a sellout crowd of 53,933 hoping Freeman could conjure some Shohei Ohtani-like magic after Ohtani hit a walk-off homer on his bobblehead night on April 2.
Alas, Freeman had nothing up his sleeve, the slugger striking out twice, getting hit by a pitch and grounding out with two on to end the seventh inning, but his return to the lineup for the first time since March 29 was still triumphant thanks to the efforts of teammates Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tommy Edman.
Yamamoto blanked the Cubs on two hits through six innings, striking out nine and walking one, and Edman snapped a scoreless tie with a three-run home run in the bottom of the sixth to lift the Dodgers to a 3-0 victory over the Cubs.
“Yoshi was very good – he set the tone by filling up the strike zone, getting swing and miss, a lot of punchouts, the [split-fingered fastball] was really good, the fastball was really good, he mixed in some curveballs when he needed to keep them off-balance,” Manager Dave Roberts said. “And Tommy had another big hit for us.”
Chicago left-hander Matthew Boyd blanked the Dodgers on two hits through five innings, extending his scoreless-innings streak to open the season to 16, when Teoscar Hernández singled to left field with one out in the sixth and Freeman was hit by a pitch.
Edman then obliterated an 80-mph, knee-high changeup from Boyd, sending a 108.4-mph drive 423 feet into the left-field pavilion for his sixth home run of the season, tying him with Aaron Judge, Kyle Schwarber, Mike Trout and Tyler Soderstrom for the major league lead.
“Yeah, it’s a lot of guys who kind of look the same, and then there’s me,” joked the 5-foot-9, 193-pound Edman, who looks like a point guard next to power forwards like Judge and Trout. “It is kind of funny, but it’s a hot start to the season. We’ll see how long I can keep it up.”
Edman, acquired in a three-team deal from St. Louis last summer, is on pace for 64 home runs – “I got the under on that,” Roberts said – but his power has come more from minor tweaks in his swing and approach than any attempts to hit long balls.
“I’m really not trying to hit homers,” Edman said. “It’s more a result of putting in some good work in the cage and having a better plan at the plate, doing my preparation and knowing how I’m trying to attack a pitcher. It’s kind of a variety of things.”
Kirby Yates struck out two of three in a scoreless seventh, Blake Treinen retired the side in order in the eighth, and Tanner Scott threw a one-two-three ninth to secure the win for Yamamoto, who has clearly been the team’s best pitcher, with a 2-1 record and 1.23 ERA in four starts.
Yamamoto retired 10 straight batters to open the game, four of the first six by strikeout, dotting a knee-high 97-mph fastball to whiff Kyle Tucker, one of baseball’s hottest hitters, looking in the first inning and winning a nine-pitch duel with Nico Hoerner, who struck out looking at a 96-mph knee-high fastball one the outside corner in the second.
Tucker grounded a one-out double down the right-field line for Chicago’s first hit in the fourth. Seiya Suzuki followed with a single to right field that was hit so hard Tucker was held by third-base coach Quintin Berry.
But Suzuki took a wide turn around first and got caught in a rundown, Freeman cutting off Teoscar Hernández’s throw from right and throwing to shortstop Mookie Betts, who tagged out Suzuki before Tucker could break home. Yamamoto then struck out Michael Busch swinging at a 92-mph split-fingered fastball to end the inning.
Yamamoto retired the next five batters before Ian Happ drew a two-out walk in the sixth. Tucker, who entered with a .322 batting average, five home runs and 16 RBIs, worked the count full before swinging through a 90-mph cut-fastball – Yamamoto’s 103rd and last pitch of the evening – for the final out.
“The pitch count was one thing, but I didn’t see much stress all night long,” Roberts said of Yamamoto. “I think each time out you see his confidence growing. Even with big outs, he holds his adrenaline and makes pitches when he needs to. Right now, he’s in a place where he’s really unflappable, which is good for us.”
Yamamoto threw first-pitch strikes to 14 of 20 batters. He induced 11 swinging strikes, seven on a splitter that he has thrown with more conviction this season.
“Last year, there were times I received signs for the splitter, but I often couldn’t throw them for strikes and got into bad counts, which forced me to go to the fastball,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter. “This year, I’ve been able to command them better.”
That command of six pitches, including a crisp fastball that is averaging 95.9 mph this season, has made Yamamoto almost impossible to hit.
“He’s unreal,” Edman said. “I’m kind of in awe of how well he executes. He’s able to dot the outside corner when he wants, and once he hits that corner, he has the split off of it. I really don’t know how I would attack him as a hitter. He’s just lights out, and it’s been fun to watch.”
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