Freddie Freeman (9-30-25)

DV chats with Freddie before the Dodgers face the Reds in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card round. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talker.
It is Game one of the Wildcards series, the Dodgers
and Reds getting said for first pitch, and I'm joined
right now by a man that has been the pillar
of strength for the Dodgers, of consistency. There's one thing
you can always count on when the sun comes up,

(00:20):
and that's Freddie Freeman at first base. Freddie, thanks a
lot for the time, appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Thank you, David. Good to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
I mean, you had such an incredible October. You've always
performed in the postseason. What's it like this year for
the group having to play as quickly as you are
after Sunday's finale.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, obviously it's a different route we took this year,
but I don't think anybody's worried about not only having
one day off and getting into it. We're excited. We
played our i think our best baseball the last the
last couple of weeks. So everyone's feeling good. You know,
we had Tommy and Monts who are you know, like,

(00:59):
battling some makes some So hopefully everyone's feeling good going
into today and we get off on the right foot.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
What do you think it is. I mean, everybody was
talking about when things weren't going right for the offense,
but nobody seems to be talking about the fact that
things are going right right now for the offense.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's just ebbs and flows
of baseball season. I think anybody who's in the clubhouse
or around the game knows you're gonna go through your
ups and downs. Some of us are gonna be hot
at and things go where you can just stand in
the box and whatever happens happens, and we score a
lot of runs, and sometimes you don't get the hit
with the runners with scoring position, and things just don't
go according to plan. I think that's the beauty of

(01:37):
one hundred and sixty two games schedule, because most of
the time things work themselves out. And you know, we
at least started to get the big hits and started
scoring some runs doing the little things right at the
toward the end of the season. So once the playoffs
are here, no one really cares about the regular season anymore.
So whatever happened to the regular season, you just get

(01:58):
going and throw that away and just get ready for
the biggest month of our lives.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Ever since you've come to the Dodgers. You've told me,
at this time of year, you just have to be
somewhat fortunate that you're swinging the bat well at the
right time.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, I mean, I think you can. I think all
of us would say it's a lot of it, especially
this kind of style of tournament. Now it's hoops ever hot.
I mean there, you could be as hot as a firecracker,
and then all of a sudden the last week of
the season, you feel like you're lost in the batter's box,
and unfortunately that carries over. It's when you're facing as
good as the pitching we are, if your swing feels

(02:31):
a little off, it's just that's what happens. I mean,
you saw it in twenty twenty three. Mooki and I
went one for twenty one combined. It unfortunately happens, But
luckily the next year we did all right, and no
one remembers really the twenty twenty three. But I think
as a whole, as a group, we're feeling good. I

(02:51):
think maybe with only a day off and we get
the practice on that day off, that maybe we can
just carry this over and continue the good streaks that
we've had lately, and hopefully that continues. But I think
if you once you walk in that door, and if
the situation presents yourself and there's a guy on second
base with no outs, you've got to move them over.

(03:11):
So you got to throw your personal stats out the window.
It's whatever you can possibly do to help win the
Dodgers win that game that day. You got to do it.
If it's you going over four to four ground outs
to the right side, and so be it. That's what
you got to do. So it's about all all that is.
October is the name on the front, so hopefully we
can get off to the right foot.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Freddy Freeman is our guest in front of first pitch,
Blake Snell against Hunter Green. You just saw Hunter Green
a couple of weeks ago. Does that play into today?

Speaker 2 (03:40):
I mean, obviously, the more you face someone, it's it's
I don't know if you can ever get comfortable with
one hundred mile and hour fastballs and sliders and splitters.
But I wouldn't say you're you feel more comfortable. He's
had a great September and obviously the Reds have really
good starting pitching, so it's gonna be a tough matchup.
But when you have Blake and you got Yoshi, you

(04:02):
got show Hey, you get and then you got Tyler
and but you got so many things going on that
it's once you get in the playoffs, you're in the
playoffs because you're a good team. So we got our
work cut out for us. But hopefully we can get
we get to hunt early and get into the bullpen.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Freddy, one thing people don't appreciate is you took every
team's best shot this year. You usually do, but it
felt like this year, every series, every game, you took
everybody's best shot. And here you are. I mean it
feels like you're pretty battle testing.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, I would say so. And obviously we've been to
the playoffs. A lot of us have been to the
playoffs a lot, so we have a lot of experience.
We know how the days are going to go and
what to expect to sitting on the line, the national anthems,
on the field, there's a lot more things going on,
so we know how to maneuver those days. But also
yes on the fact that everyone wants to beat us.

(04:54):
We won the World Series last year. You're gonna have
the target on your back. We dealt with injuries, we
dealt with our speed bumps, and I mean, obviously we
would love to have had a first round by but
it didn't happen that year. So this year so we
got a different little route to go. We got to
win two more extra games in the initial eleven, so
but we're ready for it. Everyone's in a good spot

(05:15):
I think health wise. Everyone's going to have their little
aches and pains, but the big injuries and we don't
really have that going into the playoffs this year, which
is nice. So hopefully we can keep that at Bay
and have a nice clean start to this playoff run
and hopefully we can get off on the right foot.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
As Freddy is wiggling his right ankle right now, keep
it loose.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
I still got a good treatment.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Thanks a lot, Freddie. It's been a great year and
look forward to a great October.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yeah me too. Let's get this going.