Braves’ Freeman has put coronavirus behind him

Freddie Freeman has come a long way this year.

The first baseman recovered from a bout with COVID19 in July in time to play a full season for the Braves and help them to their first NL Championship Series since 2001.

As the Braves prepare to meet the Los Angeles Dodgers starting Monday in Arlington, Texas, Freeman was asked to reflect on everything that has happened since the night the coronavirus caused his temperature to spike to 104.5.

“I try not to think about it,” he said. “I try to live in the moment … but I was just happy to try to make Opening Day and now here we are eight wins away” from a World Series title.

Freeman and the Braves swept the Marlins in the NL Division Series. Atlanta had a long stretch of postseason frustration before this year.

“I’m just glad the narrative is changing,” Freeman said. “There’s not really much to talk about now. We’ll start our own narrative. So that’s the great thing about this.”

Cheers: The NLCS will feature something new for the 2020 season: fans in the stands.

After the 60game regular season and the first two rounds of the playoffs were played sans fans because of the coronavirus pandemic, Major League Baseball plans to allow about 11,500 socially distanced fans to be in attendance at each of the NLCS games.

“It’ll be cool to hear actual people instead of a fake crowd noise going on,” Atlanta catcher Travis d’Arnaud said. “It’ll be cool to hear actual words.”

The ALCS, which will be played at Petco Park in San Diego beginning Sunday, won’t have fans in the stands because MLB couldn’t get approval from California to sell tickets there amid the pandemic.

Briefly: Philadelphia reliever Adam Morgan had elbow surgery and the lefthander’s recovery is expected to take at least six months. ... Righthander Joe Biagini, a King’s AcademySunnyvale and College of San Mateo alum, rejected an assignment to TripleA by the Astros and became a free agent.