Dodgers Superstar Honored With End-of-Month Award After Dominant May
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The Dodgers had a good month.
They righted the ship with an 18-10 record in May after a rough start to the season, discovered Mookie Betts could be a more than serviceable shortstop, and Freddie Freeman hit .400.
Yeah, the veteran first baseman in his second season with the Dodgers hit .400 last month and ended the period on a still active 20-game hitting streak to earn the National League Player of the Month award, per Noah Camras of Dodgers Nation.
And recording a multi-hit game in 57 percent of your games is incredibly difficult to do at any level, much less against the best competition in the sport.
Freeman's production comes at the most opportune time for the Dodgers, who ended April at 16-13 and looking far away from a team that could contend in October.
While the team still has their problems, namely a rocky bullpen and a struggling Noah Syndergaard, the Dodgers nonetheless sit tied atop the National League with a 34-23 mark, largely due to the production and timely hitting of Freeman.
So far, the early returns on Freeman's six-year, $162 million deal are that its honestly looking like a bargain as the California native is certainly looking like a candidate for the NL Most Valuable Player Award.
If the Dodgers keep getting this type of production out of Freeman, it will go a long way toward them potentially seizing control of the NL West.
As far as the shorter term prospects go, seeing whether or not Freeman can continue his 20-game hitting streak is an intriguing subplot as the New York Yankees come west to play three against the Dodgers this weekend.
Yankees right-hander Luis Severino is slated to be the opposing pitcher on Friday, and although Freeman is 0-for-2 with one walk in a small sample size, he's put up a slash line of .368/.445/.568 against righties this season.
Information on how to watch Friday's game can be found here.
