Guess who's back. Shady's back, actually, Freddie Freeman back in the Dodgers starting lineup. Freddie, thanks a lot for the time. Appreciate it, Thank you, Thank you.
David.
I've always had a special place in my heart for Freddie Freeman and Slim Shady, so that's why I went with that.
I don't even know how to answer that. David.
Hey, it's great to see a smile on your face again. What's the last three days been like for you, because we all know you want to play.
Yeah, it's been tough. I think they're getting annoyed. Yesterday I was getting restless. But yeah, I got a doc and I talked Sunday night and he called me. And obviously I didn't play the way I wanted to play last week. Try to play three things and do the best I can, give everything I got, But they thought it was best to just give me a couple of days and try and you know, get some of the pain out of there. It's still fractured. It's not like it healed in three days. But I just wasn't able
to do my routine last week. It was more of I take ten to fifteen swings and try to go get him at night. So the last few days I've been able to do full routines, so been able to practice like I want to practice, So we'll see if that translates into a game but able to do what I normally do on a game day the last couple of days, so hopefully that gives me a better opportunity to help the team.
What about gripping the bat, I haven't had an opportunity to ask you about that.
The crazy thing is, obviously it hurts the grip of bat, not as much as it did a few days ago and last week. But the most painful thing that I wasn't realizing was throwing. That was a ten out of ten last week in pain scale. I didn't realize that swinging gripping wasn't as bad. But obviously these last few days taking it off, I didn't do anything. Obviously Monday of the day off, and Tuesday I didn't do anything either.
So we gave it two full days of no gripping and throwing, and then a little bit on Wednesday and then yesterday full day. So we'll do another full day today and hopefully everything is okay throughout the day and it's still you know, it still hurts, but it's not going to go away eight weeks for a fracture, so but the pain is a lot less than it was last week.
How do you manage in as far as trying to splint it and also make throws and grip the bat.
That was the hard thing. The first game that I've played with it, I had to turn a double play and almost through the ball into left field on the turn. And it was not because it hurt the throw, is because I had to splint on it. It was slipping out of that. So today I'm going to try and go with nothing, just because I don't want to throw a ball away. It's not like it hurts. It hurts the throw, but I can still control everything. It's just pain management.
But I was a little worried that I will slip off the splint, So I'm going to try and take round balls and throw without it and see what the pain level is. Obviously, but if I have to splint, I'm gonna have to splin it, you know. I just got to be able to manage this thing and get through the rest of the year.
Freddie Freeman is our guest in front of first pitch between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks, Freddie, I don't want to try to get into your head, but how much were these last three days just as vital for a mental break because life is still going, still dealing with helping Max get better, Jason Hayward is no longer your teammate. How much of all that is part of the equation.
I think that's what I try to take the most out of these three days. I think we all knew the finger wasn't going to be not fractured in three days. It was more of you know, life has taken a lot of toll on the last month, so I try to take as much and try to set the brain off as much as I possibly could. But you know, life is still going. You know, every day is you know, just trying to take care of Max and make sure he's okay, take care of the other boys, make sure
Chelsea's okay, make sure everyone's okay. So try and put myself on the back burner in these situations. But there's a lot going on in life. You know, I get to be here in Arizona, away from the family, but I get to play baseball, So try and be as happy as we possibly can, and you know, I try to take the mental break. You know, I'm one to fight through everything and play through everything, but sometimes life kind of lets you know that you need to take
a break for a second. And you know, I don't know if it was more of the finger fracture they wanted me to give off for just you know, the last month and a half has been pretty hard on the Freeman family. So I took the three days as much as I could as resting my finger, but also trying to get my mind a break too.
I'm sure obviously baseball is an escape for you, like so many guys, how much of this series is going to be a great escape to play meaningful games in September?
Yeah, I mean, this is what we set out to do. We all knew this division was gonna be tough at the start of it. Every team. You know, you can run into any team and that they could play good against you. We knew that Diamonbacks went and got better than the offseason, same with the Padres. So this is what you look forward to as an athlete and the competitors to compete. And you know, I think I don't even know the standings. I think it's three or four
or five games we're ahead, so big series. We got our guys going, we're getting back to full health and hopefully we've just played good series.
All right, Freddy, thanks a lot for the time. We're all very happier, Bet and for a number of different reasons, and obviously the city of Los Angeles still wrapping you and your family in their arms. Appreciate it.
Thank you, David very much. Thank you