Typically, a hug in a baseball game draws attention around the MLB trade deadline when a player being embraced by teammates means that he’s been dealt to another club.
In Saturday’s game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers, a hug on the basepaths had no such implications. The only consequence was the final out of the second inning when Arizona’s Ketel Marte fielded a ground ball at second base as the Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman was running toward him.
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Rather than simply tag Freeman for the out, Marte held out his arms toward Freeman as the Dodgers’ first baseman had nowhere to go. Acknowledging the friendliness of the gesture, Freeman walked toward Marte and the two hugged to end the inning.
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“I didn’t think I’d ever be a part of a hug-out on baseball field,” Freeman said after batting 3-for-4 in the Dodgers’ 3-2 win, via the Associated Press.
Freeman, who said he’s “very much a hugger,” then explained what he was thinking as Marte stood in front of him with his arms open.
“I stopped and I was like, is there any way around this?” Freeman continued. “If I go out of the baseline, I’m out. If I run back, he’ll just run to second.”
“He gave me a little ‘Come here,’” he added. “And I was like, ‘All right, let’s just do it.’”
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Six innings later, Will Smith gave the Dodgers another reason for hugs in their dugout.
With two outs, D-Backs reliever Juan Morillo walked Mookie Betts on four pitches. Smith then fought through six pitches, fouling off two of them to stay alive with a 2-balls, 2-strikes count. Morillo then threw a high fastball down the middle of the plate and Smith launched it to straight-away center field for a two-run home run.
In the top of the ninth, Edwin Díaz took over to retire the D-Backs in order and the Dodgers celebrated their third win of the season. And Smith presumably celebrated his 31st birthday after a big home run.
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The Dodgers got the win despite Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Tucker and Betts batting a combined 0-for-9 at the top of the order. But the depth of the Dodgers’ lineup is what makes them so formidable, demonstrated by Smith and Freeman being productive in the middle of the lineup.
Smith told reporters afterwards that manager Dave Roberts originally planned to give him the day off. But the Dodgers catcher insisted on playing on a night when the team was giving away a bobblehead commemorating his World Series Game 7 home run.
“I just kind of dropped the bobblehead card and he let me in there,” Smith told the Los Angeles Times’ Maddie Lee.
