{"id":40253,"date":"2025-04-11T08:28:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T08:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253"},"modified":"2025-04-11T08:28:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T08:28:14","slug":"dodgers-roberts-likes-what-he-sees-from-freeman-better-than-when-he-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers\u2019 Roberts Likes What He Sees From Freeman: \u2018Better Than When He Started\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"c-content entry-content\">\n<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\" class=\"wp-caption \">\n<div class=\"h-responsive\">\n<figure class=\"h-responsive__inner\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2206090250-e1744306236271.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2206090250-e1744306236271.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2206090250-e1744306236271.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2206090250-e1744306236271.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" data-dom-ready-time=\"1425\" data-img-load-time=\"1644\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"caption-credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"87\" data-end=\"242\">Dodgers manager Dave Roberts expects Freddie Freeman to return to the lineup on Friday, just in time for the start of a three-game home series against the Cubs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"244\" data-end=\"534\">Freeman has ramped up with live batting practice over the last few days, working his way back from a right ankle sprain that landed him on the injured list retroactive to March 31. He injured the same surgically repaired ankle in an odd, off-field mishap\u2014slipping in the shower\u00a0at home.<\/p>\n<p>Roberts told\u00a0MLB.com that he\u2019s been keeping tabs on Freeman through live video streams, and from what he\u2019s seen, the manager feels pretty confident that the ankle has come a long way in its recovery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"536\" data-end=\"760\">\u201cHe\u2019ll be the first to tell you that his time on the IL was beneficial. Just looking at his gait running yesterday, I would say that it\u2019s better than it was when he started the season,\u201d Roberts told reporters. \u201cI saw him do some lateral stuff, but that\u2019s probably a better question for Freddie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"762\" data-end=\"1054\">Freeman had a modest start at the plate before the setback, going 3-for-12 with a pair of home runs and four RBIs across three games. He missed the second game of the Dodgers\u2019 season-opening trip to Tokyo due to rib discomfort and sat out the series against Atlanta prior to hitting the IL.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1056\" data-end=\"1418\">This is the same ankle that Freeman sprained late last season, which hindered him during the early stages of the postseason. Still, he managed to catch fire in the World Series, slugging four homers in five games against the Yankees to capture MVP honors. He had surgery in December to clean up loose bodies in the joint, aiming to put the issue behind him for good.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getty Images Dodgers manager Dave Roberts expects Freddie Freeman to return to the lineup on Friday, just in time for the start of a three-game home series&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dodgers\u2019 Roberts Likes What He Sees From Freeman: \u2018Better Than When He Started\u2019 - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dodgers\u2019 Roberts Likes What He Sees From Freeman: \u2018Better Than When He Started\u2019 - 24\/7 News America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Getty Images Dodgers manager Dave Roberts expects Freddie Freeman to return to the lineup on Friday, just in time for the start of a three-game home series...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"24\/7 News America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-11T08:28:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2206090250-e1744306236271.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"780\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"439\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253\",\"name\":\"Dodgers\u2019 Roberts Likes What He Sees From Freeman: \u2018Better Than When He Started\u2019 - 24\/7 News America\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2206090250-e1744306236271.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-11T08:28:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-11T08:28:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4fd584257b8aaef08c4e2bc73ee6a914\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2206090250-e1744306236271.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2206090250-e1744306236271.jpg\",\"width\":780,\"height\":439},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dodgers\u2019 Roberts Likes What He Sees From Freeman: \u2018Better Than When He Started\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/\",\"name\":\"24\/7 News America\",\"description\":\"Breaking Stories, Real Insights&quot;\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4fd584257b8aaef08c4e2bc73ee6a914\",\"name\":\"Admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Admin\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?author=2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dodgers\u2019 Roberts Likes What He Sees From Freeman: \u2018Better Than When He Started\u2019 - 24\/7 News America","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dodgers\u2019 Roberts Likes What He Sees From Freeman: \u2018Better Than When He Started\u2019 - 24\/7 News America","og_description":"Getty Images Dodgers manager Dave Roberts expects Freddie Freeman to return to the lineup on Friday, just in time for the start of a three-game home series...","og_url":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253","og_site_name":"24\/7 News America","article_published_time":"2025-04-11T08:28:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":780,"height":439,"url":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2206090250-e1744306236271.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253","url":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253","name":"Dodgers\u2019 Roberts Likes What He Sees From Freeman: \u2018Better Than When He Started\u2019 - 24\/7 News America","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2206090250-e1744306236271.jpg","datePublished":"2025-04-11T08:28:14+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-11T08:28:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4fd584257b8aaef08c4e2bc73ee6a914"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2206090250-e1744306236271.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2206090250-e1744306236271.jpg","width":780,"height":439},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=40253#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dodgers\u2019 Roberts Likes What He Sees From Freeman: \u2018Better Than When He Started\u2019"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/","name":"24\/7 News America","description":"Breaking Stories, Real Insights&quot;","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4fd584257b8aaef08c4e2bc73ee6a914","name":"Admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Admin"},"url":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?author=2"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40253"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40262,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40253\/revisions\/40262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}