NEW YORK (AP) Freddie Freeman took his newborn son and wife home from a hospital, stayed up through most of the night and headed from Atlanta to New York.
This is what adrenaline can do: He got four hits, including a home run, and had three RBIs to help the last-place Braves to a 7-3 win over the contending Mets on Monday night.
”My flight was at 11:30, but that doesn’t mean I got any sleep last night because my son was screaming his head off,” Freeman said. ”He found out what his lungs can do last night.”
Freeman was seen on television rushing from the dugout to the clubhouse during the seventh inning of last Wednesday’s game against Miami at Turner Field when he received a message that his wife had gone into labor.
Frederick Charles Freeman II was born Thursday.
”24+ hours of active labor, epidural at 8-9cm dilated and 3 hours of intense pushing in every position possible and this little guy wouldn’t flip (he was sunny side up) or budge past my pelvic bones,” his wife, the model known as Chelsea Goff before their wedding, wrote on Instagram . ”Ended up in c-section after exhausting every other option. Not how I wanted my labor to go, but he is healthy and perfect!! So smitten by this guy.”
Freeman was given Friday off by the Braves to spend time with his wife and son, called Charlie by his parents. He played Saturday and Sunday, waiting through two rain delays as the Braves beat Washington 6-2 in the series finale. Freeman stayed behind rather than travel with the team to New York and brought his family home from the hospital. He got at most two hours sleep and took over baby duty when the nurse left at 8 a.m.
”I wanted to do that because I’m not going to be able to see him for six days,” he said. ”I got some quality time in before I left.”
Freeman arrived in time for Monday night’s game at Citi Field.
”You’re going to love baseball so much more now with another distraction, a boy and a family,” Braves manager Brian Snitker recalled telling him. ”Maybe come on the road and get some rest.”
Freeman hit an opposite-field home run to left off Noah Syndergaard in the third inning for a 3-0 lead, added a two-run, opposite-field double in the fourth, then singled in the seventh and eighth.
Chelsea tweeted a picture of Charlie being held in front of a television screen showing the game.
”Watching daddy do amazing,” she wrote with the hashtags (hash)sorryikeptyouupallnight and (hash)stillgot4hits.
Freeman has a 23-game hitting streak and has reach base in 39 consecutive games. With nearly two weeks left in the season, the two-time All-Star has hit a career-high 31 home runs and is batting .302 with 83 RBIs.
”Hopefully, I have some other cool games I can tell him about, too,” Freeman said.
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