Freddie Freeman Launched Himself at a Padres Runner. The Throw to Mookie Betts Was Even Better.

Freddie Freeman already had his 2,500th career hit in the bag this season. But on Saturday night in San Diego, the Dodgers first baseman gave the crowd something they weren’t expecting: a midair, cross-diamond flip to Mookie Betts that looked like it belonged in a highlight reel from 2024, not the middle of a June division game.

The play started with a ground ball to the right side. Freeman stretched his left arm low to start the tag, then touched first base before launching himself into a jump pass toward second. Betts caught it clean, and the Dodgers turned the double play. The whole sequence took maybe three seconds. Fans online called it absurd. SportsNet LA clipped it immediately.

It’s that kind of heads-up athleticism that’s kept Los Angeles afloat during a season full of uneven offensive nights. The defending champs have looked mortal at the plate for stretches. They barely escaped Minnesota 2-1 in a midweek series. They got flattened 7-1 by the Padres on Friday. Freeman was the only Dodger with multiple hits in that loss — a single and a double — and he scored on a fielding error near second base.

But Freeman isn’t panicking. After that win over the Twins, he told Spectrum SportsNet: “Good teams win close ball games. We’ll get it going. It’s the middle of the year, we’ll be fine.” That quote sums up the mood in the clubhouse right now. Not complacent, but not alarmed either.

The Dodgers jumped out to a 6-1 lead on Saturday. Five of those runs came in the sixth inning. Freeman ripped a single and a double in that one too. He also scored on a Padres miscue. It wasn’t clean baseball, but it was effective.

For a guy who’s been in the league long enough to collect 2,500 hits, Freeman is still finding new ways to make a play look easy. That leap throw to Betts wasn’t just a nice moment. It was a reminder that this team’s defense can carry them on nights when the bats go quiet.

The Dodgers sit atop the NL West, same as always. The Padres are lurking. The offense hasn’t clicked for a full nine innings in a minute. But if Freeman and Betts can keep making plays like that one, it buys the lineup time to find its rhythm again.