Freddie Freeman’s Coldplay meme-inspired rebound helping Dodgers win

Tampa, Florida – First of all, the meme made Freddie Freeman laugh.

Then, in a fortuitous touch, it gave him an epiphany of lightning on his recently ill swing.

At the end of a long day of the Homestand last week – when Freeman was struck by land on July 20, immediately withdrawn from the game to obtain an x -ray, then informed that he had not undergone serious injuries – the first base player received a comic video modification on a friend’s Instagram. A slight suspension at the end of a stressful afternoon.

In this area, Freeman’s Grand Chelem in the World Series of last year was superimposed on a spin-off of the Video of Coldplay Kiss Cam which has recently become viral on social networks (yes, that Coldplay Kiss Cam).

Freeman made the clip laugh in which the couple who was sadly displayed during a recent Coldplay concert is published to seem to react to his emblematic slam.

But, while re-regarding its classic fall moment, Freeman also drawn an observation of something in his shot position.

“I am more in my ankle before,” said Freeman about his position during the bat.

It was a subtle, but deep contrast, with the way he had swung in the middle of his recent two months’ cold out – reminding him of reincorporating his legs more in his mechanics and not to lean so far in his marble configuration.

Thus, for the rest of this evening, Freeman thought of the difference (which he joked, kept him standing for a large part of the night). The next afternoon, he went directly to the Dodgers striking cages, focuses on driving in his ankle before to try to make his swing.

“It is a different thought of being in your legs when you hit,” said Freeman, who had started the season by hitting .371 during his first 38 games, before lighting up to a brand of .232 during his next 49 competitions. “It’s just more [about leaning] In my ankle before. It helps me to be on time and at the top [of the ball]. “”

“We will see,” he added with a little laugh, “how it goes in the game.”

Ten games later, it seems to be going quite well.

Since he made the tweak on July 21, Freeman has been 14 for 39 (average .359) with two circuits, four additional strokes, 10 products produced and (above all) renewed confidence on the plate.

After Collecting His First Three-Hit Game in a Month Tuesday in Cincinnati, then His First Home Run in All of July the Next Day Against The Reds, He Stayed Hot in the Dodgers’ Series-Opening 5-0 Defeat of the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday, Whacking A Two-Run Double in the first inn. Solo Home Run in the Fifth in Front of A Crowd of 10,046 at Steinbrenner Field (The New York Yankees’ Spring Training Park serving as a temporary shelves).

“This visual helped him exploit something,” said manager Dave Roberts about the adjustment of the Freeman post-Meet swing. “It is early, for a change. In relation to being late, to continue.”

Freeman said on Friday that he no longer thought of the ankle signal.

“I’m just in the box and I swing now,” he said. “I took land, working on a few walks, deepening the counts, hitting the land that I have to hit. … it’s just the case, [get] in the box and [be] on time. “”

However, he recognized, the Swing thought inspired by the same could have been a useful reset.

“I have the impression of having grinded for six, seven weeks … But obviously, I am tending in a large direction at the moment,” he said. “I’m just trying to go up. I know that my work will usually end up working at some point. ”

The Dodgers launcher, Clayton Kershaw, delivers during a 5-0 victory against the Rays of Tampa Bay on Friday.

(Jason Behnken / Associated Press)

Indeed, Freeman’s reversal is something that Dodgers – who also obtained six goalless rounds from Clayton Kershaw on Friday, reducing his seasonal average earned at 3.29 in 13 departures – expect several superstar bumps in the past two months of the regular season.

During the deadline for the trade on Thursday, the team did not make a madness on large -scale acquisitions. The only addition they brought to their recently collapsed range (which ranked 28th in the score majors in July) was the versatile voltiseur Alex Call of the Washington Nationals.

Instead, the leaders of Roberts and clubs have preached lately, the Bit team on players like Mookie Betts (which strikes 0.237), Teoscar Hernández (who struck 0.217 since his return from an adductor strain in May), Tommy Edman (who struck 0.211 Coure, but has been hitting only 0.221 Tasks in June) to play their typical and powerful standards.

“I think that if you look at it on the offensive side, as regards our guys, they will be the first to tell you that they have to work better and more regularly,” said Roberts. “This is something we all have on.”

For much of the summer, Freeman had been squarely in this group of stars of the sub-perform veterans.

But its recent rebound (it doesn’t matter what triggered it) provides a model to the rest of the range to follow – the beginning, the dodgers continue to hope, more improvements to the alignment in relation to the race.

“Five or six months ago in spring training, we were talking about a large part of a team,” said Freeman. “We always have a big team. Obviously, some of us have not played as well, so it is for us to start. And some of us are going right now. I think we are going very well in the future.”