Freddie Freeman is back where the Los Angeles Dodgers like him: in the middle of a loaded order, on the last afternoon of the regular season.
After sitting Saturday against the San Francisco Giants, the Dodgers first baseman is in Sunday’s Game 162 lineup at Oracle Park and batting third.
The card posted by Underdog MLB puts Shohei Ohtani at designated hitter, Mookie Betts at shortstop, Freeman at first, Kyle Tucker in right, Teoscar Hernández in left, Max Muncy at third, Andy Pages in center, Hunter Feduccia behind the plate and Tommy Edman at second. Jack Dreyer is listed as the starter in what figures to be a bullpen game.
The off day was not a surprise. Freeman had started each of the previous 10 games and was dragging a .522 OPS over 45 plate appearances in that stretch.
Enrique Hernández filled in at first on Saturday while the club gave its 37-year-old cornerstone a breather.
That is how Dave Roberts has handled September: keep Freeman available, not exhausted, with the postseason a few days away.
Sunday’s assignment is the one Freeman has occupied for most of his career.
He has started more than 1,300 games in the three-hole across Atlanta and Los Angeles, and even after spring talk about a cleanup role behind Tucker, the Dodgers keep sliding him back between Betts and the middle of the order when they want their most reliable left-handed bat seeing traffic.
He entered the weekend hitting .290 with 167 hits, 16 homers and 70 RBIs. The power has been quieter lately — he has gone without an extra-base hit for more than two weeks — but the bat-to-ball skill is still the reason Los Angeles trusts him with runners on.
The context around the lineup is October-minded. Los Angeles is 99-62 and chasing a 100-win season in the finale. Will Smith is the only everyday starter sitting.
Blake Treinen is headed to the injured list with a shoulder issue, so the bullpen will be asked to work. First pitch is 12:05 p.m. PT / 3:05 p.m. ET on SportsNet LA.
For Freeman, the message is simple. One rest day. Then back in the three-hole, glove at first, with Ohtani and Betts in front of him and Tucker behind him.
If the Dodgers are going to finish 100-62 and carry momentum into the NLDS, they want their veteran first baseman in the middle of it — not on the bench, and not buried in the order.
Sunday is a tune-up with meaning: one more look at the group that has to win in October.
