Freddie Freeman’s 15-pitch at-bat sparks Dodgers offense in win over Giants

It was around pitch seven or eight when the Oracle Park crowd started to realize what was happening.

The score was tied in the top of the sixth inning. The Dodgers had the bases loaded with no outs. Freddie Freeman had worked a full count against San Francisco Giants left-hander Taylor Rogers.

And suddenly, Wednesday’s game was hanging in the balance.

That’s when the high-leverage at-bat became something more; when Freeman started to foul off one pitch after another, after another and so on.

Nine straight times, in a 15-pitch battle that lasted the better part of six minutes, Freeman swung at a pitch in or near the strike zone. Nine straight times, he hit it somewhere outside the two white foul lines.

The longer it went on — with Freeman depositing balls into the screen behind home plate, the grandstand beyond that, the seats deep down the left-field line, and even the top of the brick landing just wide of the foul pole in right — the more a split stadium of Giants and Dodgers fans started to get loud.

First they rose to their feet. Then they tried to drown each other out, screaming “Beat LA!” and “Freddie! Freddie!” as Rogers continued to unleash a barrage of sidearm sinkers and sliders.

Finally, on the 15th offering, the Giants reliever missed too far outside.

Freeman took his free base. The Dodgers took their first lead. And the momentum had been flipped on a crisp Bay Area night, the epic free pass spurring a five-run rally in the Dodgers’ eventual 10-5 win in which Max Muncy also hit two more homers.

“I was just trying to battle, just trying to push the ball forward,” Freeman said. “It kept going backwards. But it was a good at-bat. I’ll take that.”

Like most of his teammates during the Dodgers’ sluggish start to the season, Freeman had felt out of sync over the last couple of weeks.

He still entered Wednesday batting .375. with multiple hits in half of his first 12 games. Yet, something didn’t feel right at the plate, reflected in his team-low two RBIs (among players with at least 25 at-bats) to begin the season.

“I’m still trying to find it,” Freeman said Tuesday night, after a rare 0-for-5 performance in which he’d left five runners on base. “Working hard, trying to feel good at the plate.”

Freeman almost broke through in the top of the fourth inning, hammering a deep drive to center that, with two runners aboard and two outs in the inning, had extra bases written all over it.

But Giants center fielder Bryce Johnson robbed him with a spectacular leaping catch that sent him crashing into the wall (and, ultimately, out of the game to be evaluated for a concussion).

Freeman craned his neck at the missed opportunity.

He would get his redemption a couple of innings later.

After a fifth-inning solo home run from Muncy tied the score at 3-3 — erasing the early three-run lead the Giants had built against Clayton Kershaw — Rogers ran into trouble by issuing three straight walks to lead off the sixth.

That set the table for Freeman. He took the first two pitches away. Fouled off two over the plate. Laid off another to work the count full. Then began his foul-ball marathon, Freeman growing more amused with every fouled off hack.

“I had a couple people ask me why I didn’t call timeouts,” Freeman said. “But I was like, you know what, I can’t do this. We gotta go toe to toe and we’ll see who wins.”

Finally, Rogers blinked, pulling a sinker well wide. Freeman flipped his bat, pointed to the dugout and took a free base that changed the game — followed immediately by a sacrifice fly from Will Smith and three-run home run from Muncy, his second of the game, to open up an 8-3 lead.

“Freddie grinded through that at-bat, got that walk, gave us the lead and then just from there, the floodgates opened,” said Kershaw, who gave up three runs (two earned) in six innings. “I mean, just it’s amazing how one at-bat can change the outlook of game but that definitely did it tonight.”

The Dodgers kept rolling in the series rubber match from there.

Kershaw finished a six-inning outing without more damage, becoming the first Dodgers starter to eclipse 100 pitches this season.

Trayce Thompson tacked on a two-run home run in the seventh, his fourth of the season.

And Smith, J.D. Martinez and James Outman all had multiple hits, helping the Dodgers’ offense rebound from their shutout defeat Tuesday night.

Rojas exits with hamstring cramp

Miguel Rojas left Wednesday’s game early because of a left hamstring cramp, but said afterward he doesn’t believe it’s serious.

The shortstop had his leg tightly wrapped after returning from a left groin injury, and said circulation to his leg was cut off as he ran to first base to beat out an infield single. Once the wrap was off, he said he felt fine.