LOS ANGELES — The foul ball climbed high over the infield at UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium and came down toward the right side. Freddie Freeman tracked it, leaned toward the visitors’ dugout opening, and then there was no railing.
He fell. All six feet and five inches of him — and the cornerstone of the most expensive roster in baseball history — plunged down the concrete steps into the Kansas City Royals’ dugout during the eighth inning Wednesday night, with the Dodgers already leading and working to close out a three-game sweep.
Freeman landed on his right side, bracing against the impact. His head cleared the staircase leading down to the visitors’ clubhouse by a margin he could not measure in the moment. “Luckily I was tall, so I missed everything else,” he told reporters after the game.
The ball, hit by Royals outfielder Isaac Collins with one out in the eighth, was not caught. Freeman, 36, emerged from the dugout on his own power, finished the inning at first base, and was replaced in the bottom of the eighth by Tommy Edman pinch-hitting. Kiké Hernández moved to cover first base. No X-rays were ordered.
“I was going to lean against the rail to catch the ball,” Freeman said. “And obviously, there was no rail.” He described soreness concentrated on his right side: kneecaps, shoulder, hand, wrist. He confirmed he had not hit his head and had not fallen on his ankle. “I’ve already cold tubbed and done everything I needed to do to put myself in a position to hopefully be able to play,” he said, referring to Thursday’s series opener against the Milwaukee Brewers.
The sweep of Kansas City moved Los Angeles forward after what the club had called its worst slump of the season. Freeman had been one of the roster’s constants through that stretch, entering Wednesday with a .305 average, 15 home runs and 57 RBIs across 117 games. He turns 37 in September. His 10th career All-Star Game selection this season marked the latest recognition of a player who has remained among the game’s elite first basemen into his mid-thirties.
The fall into a concrete dugout carried weight beyond the soreness itself. The $421 million Dodgers payroll — the largest in the sport’s history — was built around the assumption that Freeman, Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts would absorb the weight of a 162-game schedule and a playoff run. Injuries to the pitching staff, including Blake Snell‘s elbow troubles earlier this season, had already complicated the rotation picture. The position players, Freeman chief among them, had represented the reliable core.
According to Yahoo Sports, Freeman confirmed he did not fall on his ankle — a detail that matters given the ligament he played through during the 2024 World Series. That ankle held on Wednesday. The soreness was his right side: kneecaps, shoulder, hand, wrist. No structural damage was confirmed.
He noted this was not the first time he had disappeared into a dugout. A similar fall in Arizona during his years with the Atlanta Braves came to mind immediately after Wednesday’s incident. In Atlanta, Freeman was in his mid-twenties. The Freeman who stepped out of the Royals’ dugout Wednesday is 36, weeks from 37, playing in his fifth year with Los Angeles on a contract that still runs through the decade.
What remains unresolved is how the soreness settles overnight. Bruising develops in the hours after a fall like this, and the absence of X-rays means the structural picture could still clarify or deepen by Thursday morning. Freeman said he was hopeful to play. Roberts did not rule him out. The Dodgers have Friday off, which provides a recovery window regardless of what Thursday holds.
The sweep stands. The series against Milwaukee begins Thursday. Whether Freeman is in the lineup when the Brewers arrive is the question the Dodgers’ training staff will answer overnight — one piece of information the final score on Wednesday did not include.
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