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LOS ANGELES — Two-thousand hits hadn’t been much of a thought in Freddie Freeman‘s mind; the hallowed number, and the ultimate goal, is 3,000. But his 6-year-old son, Charlie, kept reminding him about it. The Los Angeles Dodgers‘ homestand was coming to an end, a mini slump was prolonging, and Freeman was running out of time. Finally, with two outs in the eighth inning of Sunday’s home finale, it came — a scorching double into the right-center-field gap and career hit No. 2,000, making Freeman the sixth active player to reach the milestone.

He did it in front of his father, who lives only about a 40-minute drive south, and his wife and his three kids, including Charlie — and in front of 47,000-plus people who serenaded him with two standing ovations.

“The fans have embraced my family and I since the day they got here,” Freeman said after a 6-5, 11-inning loss to the Houston Astros. “They made another special memory for the Freeman family. Dodger fans never disappoint. Another special day, one I’ll never forget. Took long enough, but I’m glad it happened at home.”

Freeman, 33, joined Miguel Cabrera, Joey Votto, Nelson Cruz, Elvis Andrus and Andrew McCutchen among active players who have accumulated at least 2,000 hits. He became the eighth player to reach that mark in a Dodgers uniform, according to research from Elias Sports Bureau, along with Adrian Gonzalez, Jeff Kent, Tim Wallach, Brett Butler, Gary Carter, Willie Davis and Maury Wills.

Freeman’s hit sparked a rally — cutting the Dodgers’ deficit to two, right before Will Smith‘s home run tied it and ultimately forced extras — and came 38 days after his 300th career home run went for a grand slam. Freeman is now the 98th player in baseball history to accrue at least 300 homers and 2,000 hits.

“That kinda hits a little bit,” Freeman said. “This game’s been going on for a long time.”

The context made Freeman think about his father, Fred, and all those rounds of batting practice, some as recently as this past offseason. It made him think about his wife and kids, and the sacrifices that come with navigating a major league schedule. And it made him think about the work — the persistent, unrelenting, monotonous work that has helped him become one of the preeminent players of this era.

It’s what resonates most with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.

“I just marvel at his consistency, his everyday, workman-like attitude,” Roberts said. “Hasn’t been great the last week, but you know you can pencil him in there and he’s going to give you his best every single day.”

Freeman finished the month of May with the second-highest batting average in the sport, but he had struggled through most of June. Heading into Sunday, his batting average had dropped 30 points, from .346 to .316. Through the first four games this week, he managed only two hits in 14 at-bats, then was retired in his first two plate appearances Sunday, his career total sitting stagnant at 1,998. A six-time All-Star and three-time Silver Slugger who excelled at driving pitches the other way was getting a little too pull-happy for his liking.

Then came the sixth inning. Freeman stayed back long enough on a Hunter Brown changeup and lined it into the area of a vacant third base for a double, rekindling the feeling of driving through the baseball that had eluded him. It helped set up his second double — against hard-throwing reliever Rafael Montero, while hitting into the shadows — two innings later.

Freeman doffed his helmet to the crowd upon reaching second base, then later came out for a curtain call when the Dodger Stadium fans started the same “Fre-ddie!” chant that made him feel so welcomed during his first season in Los Angeles last year.

“Hits mean a lot to me,” he said. “Everyone views success differently in their careers, and how they go about it, but hits and average, that is what I care about. If I have a lot of hits, and I have a good average, that means I’m getting on base a lot for my team and we’re able to score a lot of runs.”

The target now is 3,000 — an incredibly difficult milestone to reach, particularly in such a difficult era for hitters, but not an impossible one.

In 11 prior full seasons, not counting the COVID-19-shortened season of 2020, Freeman has averaged 166 hits per year. If that rate continues, he would reach 3,000 by his age-39 season in 2029 (his contract with the Dodgers expires in 2028). Freeman has done the math.

“Father time will catch up at some point,” Freeman said, “but might as well go for the next thousand since you got to 2,000. Yeah, that would be pretty cool. Hopefully I can play long enough to be able to do that.”

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Reds’ Burns fans 1st 5 hitters in his MLB debut

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Reds' Burns fans 1st 5 hitters in his MLB debut

CINCINNATI — Rookie Chase Burns became the first starting pitcher in the expansion era to strike out the first five batters he faced in his major league debut.

He was not able to carry the momentum through the rest of the game.

The 22-year old Cincinnati Reds right-hander, the second overall pick in last July’s amateur draft, allowed three runs over five innings Tuesday night in a 5-4, 11-inning win over the New York Yankees.

Burns struck out his first five batters before Jazz Chisholm Jr‘s single. He gave up six hits and struck out eight, the seventh Cincinnati starter to have at least that many in his first career start.

“We watched for everything,” Reds manager Terry Francona said of Burns. “He didn’t get too excited. I think he enjoyed the competition. There’s a lot to like.”

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Burns also joined the Yankees’ Al Leiter and Tampa Bay’s Wade Davis as the only pitchers since 1961 whose first six outs in their debuts were strikeouts. Both gave up a run during the first two innings.

Burns struck out seven of the his first 10 hitters and allowed only one hit until Ben Rice led off the fourth by connecting on a hanging slider that went 413 feet and two-thirds of the way into the right field sun deck at Great American Ball Park.

Aaron Judge followed with a base hit. Burns retired the next two hitters, Chisholm got aboard with a single and Anthony Volpe hit a two-run triple when center fielder TJ Friedl made an ill-advised dive and the ball got by him.

“I think he’s a good pitcher,” Francona said. “I don’t think him giving up a couple runs is going to make somebody fold. If that was the case, we wouldn’t have brought him up.”

Burns averaged 98.1 mph with 48 fastballs, topping out with a pair at 100.1 mph in the first inning. He threw 24 sliders, eight changeups and one curveball. New York was 1-for-9 with six strikeouts in his first time through the order and 5-for-9 with a triple and home run the second time through.

Burns threw 53 of 81 pitches for strikes. His first big league pitch was a 98.4 mph fastball to Trent Grisham that just caught the inside corner of the plate. He got Judge to chase a 91.1 mile slider for the third out in the first inning.

“I guess you have to say Judge. I have watched him. He’s a big dude and one of the best hitters in the game,” Burns said when asked if any one strikeout stood out more than the others. “It was probably my favorite one.”

Burns fell behind 3-0 on three of the first 10 batters before ending up with strikeouts, and started 11 of 21 batters with strikes and induced 12 swing and misses. He is the fifth first-round selection from last year’s draft to reach the majors, joining Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz, Royals outfielder Jac Caglianone, Angels second baseman Christian Moore and Astros outfielder Cam Smith, who was selected by the Cubs before going to Houston in the Kyle Tucker trade last December.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Latz’s no-hit bid could land him in Texas rotation

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Latz's no-hit bid could land him in Texas rotation

BALTIMORE — Jacob Latz might have earned a spot in the Texas Rangers‘ rotation.

Manager Bruce Bochy says he’ll consider it.

“Of course,” Bochy said. “He’s a weapon whether he starts or he’s in the bullpen, but he’s stretched out. You’ve heard me say he’s got starter’s stuff.”

Latz took a no-hitter into the seventh inning Tuesday night against Baltimore, and although the Rangers blew a four-run lead, they recovered to win 6-5 in 10 innings. Latz set career highs in innings pitched (six-plus) and pitches (88) and lowered his ERA on the season to 3.22.

“I don’t know the plans going forward. I was kind of just trying to soak it all up today,” Latz said. “It was just a lot of fun out there.”

In his third career start and second of the season, Latz didn’t allow a hit until Ramon Laureano singled to center to start the bottom of the seventh. A walk later, Latz was removed, but a 4-0 Texas lead didn’t last much longer.

Chris Martin came on and gave up homers to each of his three batters — Gary Sanchez, Ramon Urias and Ryan O’Hearn — and left with the Rangers down 5-4. But a sacrifice fly by Jonah Heim the following inning tied it, and Evan Carter slid home safely on Sam Haggerty‘s grounder in the 10th.

Latz walked three and struck out four — including the last three hitters of the fifth inning. His previous longest outing in the majors was Thursday, when he threw 5 2/3 innings of relief in a loss to Kansas City.

“That’s one of the better jobs in all of baseball — to be a starting pitcher,” Latz said. “I’m not going to say I don’t want to be a starting pitcher. Obviously I do. I’m comfortable either way obviously. If it’s in the rotation, it’s great.”

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Pirates remove Cruz after he loses track of outs

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Pirates remove Cruz after he loses track of outs

MILWAUKEE — Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Oneil Cruz said he lost track of the outs when he didn’t run out a double-play grounder, a move that led to his removal in his club’s 9-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night.

The Pirates trailed 7-3 and had a runner on first with one out in the seventh when Cruz grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. Cruz slowed down after the Brewers got the force play at second, and he said afterward he believed that was the third out of the inning.

Pirates manager Don Kelly removed Cruz in favor of a defensive replacement in the eighth inning and said it was due to Cruz’s “energy and effort going down the line.” Cruz said after the game he understood Kelly’s decision.

“DK had all the rights to do what he did, and I’ll back him up on that,” Cruz said through an interpreter. “It was my fault because I thought there were two outs in that situation. That’s why I let off running to first base.”

Kelly said he explained to Cruz the reason for the benching.

“We talked,” Kelly said. “He knows the expectation. Right there, I feel we fell a little short.”

When he was asked whether Cruz would be back in the starting lineup Wednesday, Kelly was noncommittal.

“We’re going to sit down and talk, and we’ll figure that out,” Kelly said.

Cruz, 26, has batted just .156 (12-of-77) with 31 strikeouts this month after having a productive start to the season that included owning a .911 OPS in early May and hitting a 122.9 mph homer against the Brewers on May 25. That homer was the hardest-hit ball since Statcast started tracking that data in 2015.

Cruz is now hitting .208 with a .321 on-base percentage, a .404 slugging percentage, 13 homers, 31 RBIs and 26 steals in 71 games.

“He’s struggling at the plate right now,” Kelly said. “It’s difficult when you’re going through that and trying to figure it out. He’s working hard to do that. That’s one thing we’ve got to be mindful of, is not letting that offense carry over to defense and base running, and the energy and effort that we’re giving on any other aspects of the game as well.”

Cruz said his hitting slump “had nothing to do with what happened today” and isn’t impacting his focus on the basepaths or in the field. But he also said he appreciated Kelly’s instructions to him and noted how he can learn from veteran teammates Andrew McCutchen and Tommy Pham.

“They’re a really good example,” Cruz said. “They always run hard. They always go out there to do their 100%. That’s a teaching point for me. I accepted the way DK came to me and explained it and presented it to me.”

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