Braves lose as Freeman leaves with sore elbow
ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves closed their final home series of the regular season with new injury concerns about Freddie Freeman and his status for the playoffs.
A recurrence of pain caused by a bone spur in his right elbow forced the veteran first baseman to leave the Braves’ 4-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Sunday afternoon.
Braves manager Brian Snitker said Freeman will remain in Atlanta for four days of treatment instead of joining the team for a two-game road series against the Kansas City Royals. The Braves having today and Thursday off made the decision easy for Snitker and general manager Alex Anthopoulos.
“If we were in the playoffs tomorrow, he would be in the lineup,” Snitker said.
“At times it kind of bites him a little bit. He gets treatment and he’s fine. … We want to make sure that thing gets back right.”
Snitker rested Freeman on Saturday night, and on Sunday he drove in a run with a groundout in the sixth inning before leaving the game in the eighth.
“It’s obviously not ideal,” Freeman said of the injury. “It responded pretty good with that off day last week, so we hope four days will really do the trick.”
Freeman, who won a Gold Glove last season, is a key to the two-time reigning National League East Division champions’ hopes to win a playoff series for the first time since 2001. He is hitting .296 with 38 home runs this year and leads the NL with 121 RBIs.
The Braves plan on Freeman joining the team in New York for Friday night’s opener of the final regular-season series against the Mets.
“Hopefully some good treatment will make it go away,” Freeman said. “… Hopefully I’ll be ready to go for the game on Friday.”
Rookie pitcher Logan Webb allowed only two hits and one run in six innings as San Francisco prevented the Braves from sweeping the threegame series. Evan Longoria drove in two runs with two hits.
Snitker rested outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. and third baseman Josh Donaldson. Second baseman Ozzie Albies was headed for a second full day of rest before reaching on a pinch-hit single in the ninth.
Webb (2-2) struck out seven. He opened the game with five scoreless innings before Adeiny Hechavarría tripled in the sixth and scored on Freeman’s groundout.
Relievers Tyler Rogers and Will Smith closed out the combined five-hitter. Smith pitched the ninth for his 34th save this year.
After being outscored 14-1 while losing the first two games of the series, the Giants scored three runs in the sixth off Dallas Keuchel (8-7), who allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits in six innings.