Freeman had scary fight with COVID-19
Freddie Freeman doesn’t know if he has time to be ready for the Atlanta Braves’ opener.
Following a scary battle with COVID-19, Freeman is grateful to even have a chance.
On Saturday, the fourtime All-Star revealed he had a high temperature of 104.5 degrees early in his battle with the disease and prayed for his life.
“I said a little prayer that night,” Freeman said in a video conference call. “I’ve never been that hot before. My body was really, really hot . ... I said ‘Please don’t take me’ because I wasn’t ready.”
Freeman said the fever was down to 101 the following morning and broke two days later. He said Saturday was his ninth consecutive day without symptoms, which also included body aches, chills and a temporary loss of his senses of taste and smell. He said two other members of his household, his wife and aunt, are recovering after positive tests.
“I feel great,” he said. “I only lost one pound . ... I didn’t lose any strength.”
Freeman reported to Truist Park for a workout on Friday only about an hour after receiving his second negative test for the coronavirus, which earned him medical clearance to play.
The Braves plan to give Freeman as many at-bats as possible before the season. He had a run-scoring triple over the head of right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. in Saturday night’s intrasquad game and also caught a foul popup over his shoulder.
Freeman’s appreciation of being back with the team was obvious. The Braves posted video on the team’s Twitter account of Freeman, carrying his bat and glove, saying “This is wonderful” as he walked out of the dugout Friday.
“I feel like I’m a kid in a candy store again,” he said. ROBLES WORKS OUT WITH NATIONALS >> The defending World Series champion Washington Nationals are happy to have their starting center fielder finally in camp, the Yankees got a key player back in the lineup, and Pittsburgh will start the season without one of their top prospects.
Teams around the league were beginning to make their final preparations Sunday for the start of the abbreviated baseball season.
Washington is counting on having Victor Robles patrolling center field when Max Scherzer throws the first pitch of the season Thursday night against the Yankees at Nationals Park.
Robles had his first official workout with the team after being quarantined for two weeks because he came into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
“It was definitely very difficult, the fact that I really wasn’t able to work much on my swing,” Robles said through an interpreter. “But I appreciate that the team did a good job of taking me a lot of things that I could use within the apartment, even baseballs and whatnot, to try to stay as ready as I could physically.”
Meanwhile in New York, All-Star second baseman DJ LeMahieu was in the Yankees’ lineup Sunday night for the first time since recovering from COVID-19.
Aaron Judge made his summer exhibition debut and homered on an 0-2 fastball from the Mets’ Corey Oswalt in the first inning.
Mets catcher Wilson Ramos is away from the team to deal with a personal matter — the club is not explaining any absences in detail.
Pirates third base prospect Ke’Bryan Hayes is out indefinitely while dealing with the novel coronavirus.
Manager Derek Shelton announced Hayes’ illness after the 23-year-old Hayes — the son of former longtime MLB third baseman Charlie Hayes — gave the team clearance to do so.