The Dodgers lost their Spring Training game against the Colorado Rockies by a score of 2-0 at Salt River Fields on Thursday afternoon.

That’s the bad news.

The good great news is that 35-year-old veteran eight-time All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman went 1-for-2 in his 2025 Cactus League debut as the Dodgers designated hitter with a sharp single to right in his first major league at-bat since Game-5 of the 2024 World Series on October 30, 2024.

“I felt pretty good today, actually,” Freeman said postgame. “Saw the pitches well. Felt like I swung at strikes. The last one was a little up, but I just wanted to swing a lot today.”

As Dodgers fans painfully know (and Freeman painfully experienced), the extremely popular Villa Park, CA native and second-round draft pick in 2007 by the Atlanta Braves out of El Modena High School in Orange, CA sprained his right ankle on September 25, 2024, forcing him to miss the final three games of 2024 the regular season. Incredibly, he played through the pain and hit one of the two greatest home runs in Dodgers (and baseball) history – a walk-off grand slam in Game-5 of the 2024 World Series on October 25, 2024. He underwent off-season surgery to remove loose bodies from his right ankle in early December and his return to action to begin the 2025 regular season has remained in question since.

Not anymore.

“I thought he was moving really well,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters postgame. “I thought he was seeing the ball really well considering it was his first game. Good swing that first at-bat. I thought he looked good, looked better than I would have expected, and from what I hear he came out of it well.”

“I do think I’m going to be getting a lot of treatment and taping … probably ’til the All-Star break, I would assume,” Freeman said. “It’s just hard because you’re on your feet all day long. Lower-body injuries are hard to rehab, especially the ankle.”

But wait, there’s more!

It was later reported that following a day of rest on Friday, Freeman is expected to play in Saturday’s game against the San Francisco Giants at Camelback Ranch, where he will most likely again be the Dodgers DH. If all goes well, the plan is for him to play first base on Sunday against the Chicago White Sox, also at CBR.

Great news indeed.

Play Ball!

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