LOS ANGELES — Before the game, the loudest ovation belonged to the Los Angeles Dodgers longest-tenured player.
At the height of Thursday night’s home-opener, however, a sold-out Dodger Stadium was chanting for the team’s newest star.
In his first regular-season game at Chavez Ravine since signing with the Dodgers last month, Freddie Freeman delivered the crushing blow in the team’s 9-3 win against the Cincinnati Reds, lacing a leadoff double in the eighth inning to spark the team’s game-winning six-run rally.
As Freeman pulled into second base, a hysteric crowd of 52,995 rose to its feet. Chanting along to the trumpeting beat of Dayvi’s “Baila Conmigo,” they shouted “Fred-die! Fred-die!” until the $162 million first baseman acknowledged them with a tap of his chest and left-handed wave.
Freeman scored the go-ahead run on a Trea Turner RBI single in the next at-bat. Will Smith blew the score open with a three-run home run later in the inning. Then the Dodgers tacked on a couple more to pull completely away.
In front of their first full capacity home-opening crowd since 2019, they made good on the excitement their manager was anticipating before the game.
“The thing that stands out is the energy,” Dave Roberts said when asked about his favorite part of home openers. “The newness for fans.”
For all the new faces that starred Thursday night, though, it was a day-old storyline surrounding the longtime face of the franchise that generated the most pregame buzz.
Barely 24 hours after Clayton Kershaw had been removed from Wednesday’s game after seven perfect innings, the decision was still reverberating before Thursday’s first pitch.
As TVs inside the Dodgers clubhouse showed MLB Network pundits debating the move, Kershaw met with reporters for a second straight day, once again backing Roberts’ decision to lift him in the middle of a perfect game.
“The only thing I feel bad for is, if I was a fan, I would want to see somebody finish the game,” Kershaw said. “So, from a fan’s perspective, I do feel bad for that. I wish I could have done it. But yesterday wasn’t the day.”
Roberts reiterated his explanation during a pregame news conference, then praised Kershaw’s handling of the situation.
“What he said yesterday really set the tone for the 2022 Dodgers, that he’s here to win, and anything other than that would be selfish,” Roberts said. “When you’re talking about a person who’s done everything in the game, for him to say that, that resonates in our clubhouse.”
It resonated with the fanbase, too, which showered Kershaw with one of the loudest ovations during pregame introductions.
“The individual stuff is not why I continue to play the game,” Kershaw said. “I want to win.”
Kershaw watched from the dugout as his team did against the Reds, winning their third in a row to improve 4-2 on the season.
Unlike a pregame fighter jet flyover that was mistimed with the national anthem, the Dodgers started in sync, scoring three runs on five consecutive singles in the opening inning.
Freeman sparked the rally, sending a first-pitch fastball back up the middle in his first Dodger Stadium at-bat as a member of the home team. He then advanced to third with some heads up baserunning in the next at-bat, reading Trea Turner’s line drive hit to right.
Justin Turner singled to center to plate Freeman and move Turner to third. Then Max Muncy and Will Smith sent back-to-back ground balls bouncing through the infield to bring both Turners home and make it 3-0.
Walker Buehler seemed to have the game under control from there. Despite facing a bases-loaded jam in the second and allowing a couple runners to reach in the third, Buehler escaped any damage through five innings.
One out away from a scoreless sixth, however, Buehler made a mistake. After walking Tyler Stephenson, Buehler threw an elevated fastball that Aristides Aquino got the barrel to, whacking it a two-run home run to center field.
It was Buehler’s last pitch of the night. As he returned to the dugout, he slammed his glove against the bench in disgust.
Buehler’s replacement, David Price, gave up a two-out home run to Brandon Drury an inning later, knotting the score at 3-3.
But then in the eighth, Freeman came to the plate and drove a middle-of-the-zone cutter the other way. He wore a soft smile as he stopped at second base and waved to the crowd. Six games into his Dodgers tenure, they already had a reason to joyously chant his name.
