Braves’ Freddie Freeman makes move to third base

ATLANTA — The Freddie Freeman move to third base got underway on Independence Day, with the Braves’ two-time all-star first baseman playing errorless ball on the opposite corner of the diamond.

Most of the fireworks came from the bats of the Houston Astros, who scored early and often en route to a 16-4 win, but Freeman successfully handled the two chances he had during the game. He also picked up a hit in four trips to the plate in his return to the field after being out seven weeks with a broken wrist.

The player the Braves acquired to pick up some of the offensive slack in Freeman’s absence, Matt Adams, hit well enough for the Braves that, as he neared coming off the disabled list three weeks earlier than originally estimated, Freeman approached manager Brian Snitker about moving to third. In 40 games with the Braves going into Wednesday night’s contest with the Astros, Adams has hit .292 with a dozen homers and 32 RBI.

Third was a position Freeman had not played in the majors. He last played third as a 17-year-old minor leaguer.

“I felt pretty good going into it,” Freeman said at a post-game interview late Tuesday. “Obviously, I wanted to get the first one out of the way. It was nice getting a nice little easy hop there to get the first one out of the way.”

There were two line drives that Freeman couldn’t reach, one in the second and the second in the fifth, though he did manage to get his glove on the second one.

“I got my glove on it, but it just hopped up over my glove,” he said. “I felt I was in good position and I had a good first step and I felt pretty good over there.”

In his only real chances to make putouts, Freeman cleanly fielded a two-hopper in the fifth, then squeezed a pop-up in the seventh.

“I felt like I was in the right position on every single one,” he said. “I was always looking over at Wash (coach Ron Washington), and he always seemed to say I was in the right spot.”

He noted that the ball moves in a hurry at what has long been called the hot corner.

“Obviously, (it’s) a different angle for me, and there’s a lot more hot shots coming over there than you do at first base,” Freeman said. “But hopefully I keep playing pretty good defense and hopefully those hot shots go into my glove.”

Freeman, who was hitting .338 with 14 home runs and 25 RBI going into Wednesday night’s game, said he felt good at the plate as well.

“I felt OK,” he said. “I had some pitches I hit today that fouled off. Hopefully, tomorrow I’ll hit those. I feel good, the wrist feels good, so hopefully tomorrow’s a new day.”

Tomorrow was something the Braves as a team were probably looking forward to Tuesday night after the shellacking at the hands of an Astros club that is leading the major leagues in wins. Houston’s lead-off hitter, George Springer, hit his 25th home run Tuesday night.

Freeman said it was a learning experience for Sean Newcomb, the Braves’ rookie lefthander who had a 1-2 record but a sterling 1.48 ERA going into Tuesday’s game. He was touched up for seven earned runs in 3 1/3 innings, leaving with another loss and an ERA that had risen to 3.58.

“It’s tough to get through one through nine with them,” Freeman said. “They came out swinging tonight. That’s one of the things he’s (Newcomb) going to learn from. He had four good quality starts coming into this, and unfortunately, as much as you want to be perfect every time, you’re not going to.”