Emotional Freddie Freeman gets hug from Bryce Harper in return to Dodgers as ailing son recovers

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Freddie Freeman singled and obtained a hug from Phillies star Bryce Harper in his return to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ lineup on Monday evening after lacking eight video games to be together with his ailing 3-year-old son, who’s out of hazard after a critical medical prognosis.

“I’m again,” he mentioned earlier than the Dodgers’ 5-3 victory, “so meaning good issues are occurring on the Freeman dwelling.”

Freeman acquired a standing ovation in his first at-bat. The Phillies joined the applause from their dugout. The pitch clock was stopped as he stepped out of the batter’s field, eliminated his helmet and waved to the group, then touched his proper hand to his coronary heart.

“It means so much that the Phillies had been respectful of that state of affairs,” Freeman mentioned. “I wasn’t anticipating it, however very a lot appreciated from the Dodgers followers. They made it actually laborious to hit in that first at-bat, however that’s a superb factor.”

The response clearly moved Freeman, who took a number of deep breaths earlier than stepping in in opposition to Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola.

“I used to be doing OK tipping my hat after which my dad was sitting first row with my stepmom,” he mentioned. “He was, I don’t know if I may name him crying, however he was choked up and teary-eyed and that’s what actually obtained me going.”

Freeman struck out swinging to finish the primary inning.

“It was some of the potent strikeouts I’ve ever had in my large league profession,” he mentioned.

The group chanted “Freddie! Freddie!” earlier than Freeman singled within the third. Harper was ready for him with a consoling embrace.

“Bryce in all probability texts at the very least 4 occasions throughout the 9 days, actually checking in,” mentioned Freeman, including that each Phillies participant who reached first prolonged nicely needs to him.

“I’m drained and worn out,” he mentioned, fatigue evident in his voice. “It’s simply an emotional day.”

After an preliminary prognosis proved incorrect, Maximus Freeman was discovered to have Guillain-Barre syndrome, one thing Freeman and his spouse, Chelsea, had by no means heard of. The uncommon neurological dysfunction happens when the physique’s immune system assaults the peripheral nervous system and causes nerve injury and muscle weak point.

“Seeing one among your children on a ventilator combating, it was laborious,” Freeman mentioned, his voice choking. “That’s the heartbreaking factor. Nobody deserves to undergo one thing like this. I do know you mother and father perceive that. You’d change in a second to take that ache, that struggling away out of your child in a heartbeat. Once you really feel hopeless, like Chelsea and I did, that’s laborious.”

Talking earlier than the sport, he cried at occasions and wiped his eyes and nostril with a towel.

“In case you talked to me six days in the past, I might by no means have been in a position to communicate,” Freeman mentioned. “The rationale I’m in a position to get by way of that is due to the massive wins we’ve been getting the previous few days with him. It’s been a miraculous restoration, that’s what they are saying to us.”

Maximus first obtained sick throughout the All-Star break in July, when the household traveled to the sport in Texas to cheer on Freeman. 4 days later, the kid couldn’t sit up or stroll and finally stopped consuming and ingesting.

Freeman mentioned his son skilled a lack of sensation that unfold from his ft to his shoulders and had problem respiratory.

He was rushed to the hospital close to the household’s dwelling in Orange County and placed on a ventilator. Maximus acquired two rounds of intravenous immunoglobulin, a organic agent and pooled antibody that helps restore a compromised immune system.

“Then it was a ready recreation,” Freeman mentioned.

He and Chelsea sat bedside within the pediatric intensive care unit for hours, staring intently at their son for even the slightest twitch.

“He began to shoulder shrug, which was a large signal for us,” Freeman mentioned. “It means we had been nearer to probably getting the ventilator out.”

Docs had been inspired at how shortly Maximus’ paralysis retreated from the highest to the underside of his physique.

“We ticked (off) the little wins we may get throughout this time,” mentioned Freeman, whose mom died of melanoma when he was 10.

The ventilator got here out “at 10:46, I’ll always remember it,” he mentioned. “Inside six minutes he was sitting on me. I can’t let you know how good that felt, to have the ability to maintain my son once more.”

Maximus is likely one of the Freemans’ three sons. Charlie is the oldest, adopted by Brandon and Maximus, a reputation Chelsea came across.

“That was a robust title,” Freeman mentioned. “I didn’t comprehend it was going to be confirmed to be true inside 4 years of his lifetime of how robust this little boy is.”

Freeman was greeted Monday by his teammates and Dodgers workers members sporting blue #MaxStrong T-shirts together with his final title and jersey quantity 5 on the again. Supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned a staff worker got here up with the thought.

“That was the primary time I cried at this time, after I walked in and noticed these,” Freeman mentioned. “It means so much.”

His baseball household reached out to Freeman throughout the disaster, together with his present teammates, his former staff the Atlanta Braves, and Arizona Diamondbacks supervisor Torey Lovullo.

“The assist and the love which have been proven to us, it gave us hope,” Freeman mentioned. “It was wanted, it actually was.”

Maximus is again dwelling, doing bodily remedy to relearn how one can stroll and transfer his fingers, that are in a claw place.

“You may see his smile once more,” Freeman mentioned.

The boy was keen to look at his dad play in opposition to the Phillies on Monday.

“We’ve been instructed that he’s going to make a full restoration,” Freeman mentioned. “We simply don’t know the way lengthy that might be.”

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb