ATLANTA – The ball sailed straight from Freddie Freeman’s bat into the Chop House, the premium table-seating hangout bar in SunTrust Park’s right field, so quickly and so definitively that the Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig didn’t even move, but just watched it sail on overhead like a plane already long into its flight.
And as Freeman jogged down the first-base line, fireworks accompanying every step of his first-ever postseason home run, the Braves’ spiritual leader just looked into the dugout and yelled, a long scream of exultation and relief. The Braves, down two games to zero in the NLDS, had given up every bit of a five-run lead this game, but Freeman was damned if he was going to let this team, his team, go out that way.