Dodgers vs Pirates: There are certain milestones in baseball that immediately make you stop and appreciate what you’re watching. Freddie Freeman reaching 2,500 career hits on Tuesday night was one of those moments.
The Los Angeles Dodgers eventually cruised past the Pittsburgh Pirates 12-3 at PNC Park, but the final score doesn’t really capture how strange this game felt for six innings. For most of the night, Pittsburgh actually looked capable of pulling off an upset behind Paul Skenes, who finally resembled the dominant version of himself that baseball fans have become accustomed to seeing.
Then he walked off the mound. Everything changed after that. And honestly, that’s what stood out most to me. Not Freeman’s milestone. Not Shohei Ohtani’s RBI double. Not even the 10-run seventh inning itself.
It was how quickly the Dodgers turned a competitive baseball game into a complete demolition once the Pirates’ bullpen was forced to take over.
For Six Innings, Paul Skenes Was Winning the Battle
If someone only looks at the final score, they’ll assume Skenes got knocked around. That wasn’t the case at all.
The reigning National League Cy Young Award winner gave Pittsburgh exactly what it needed. He worked six innings, allowed just two runs, struck out seven, and perhaps most impressively, completely neutralized Ohtani.
That’s not something many pitchers can claim these days. Ohtani grounded out twice and struck out once against Skenes. There weren’t many uncomfortable moments. There wasn’t much traffic. The Dodgers were being held in check.
In fact, Pittsburgh entered the seventh inning tied 2-2 and had every reason to believe it could win the game. Then baseball reminded everyone how thin the margin for error can be.
One Weird Play Opened the Floodgates
I’ve always believed that baseball games often swing on moments that don’t look important when they happen. This game had one of those moments.
Dalton Rushing reached base to begin the seventh and eventually moved to third. Then came a bizarre play when Pirates catcher Henry Davis attempted a pickoff throw that struck Rushing and rolled away, allowing the go-ahead run to score.
The scoreboard only records it as a throwing error. The game felt much bigger than that. You could almost sense Pittsburgh tightening up afterward. The Dodgers smelled blood immediately.
Ohtani followed with an RBI double. Andy Pages launched a two-run homer. More mistakes followed. Walks piled up. Another defensive error appeared. Suddenly every Dodgers hitter seemed to be stepping into the batter’s box with runners on base.
Before anyone inside PNC Park could process what was happening, Los Angeles had sent 14 hitters to the plate and scored ten runs. Ten. Against a team that had controlled much of the evening.
Those kinds of innings don’t happen because one team gets hot. Usually they happen because one team gets hot while the other completely loses control of the game. That’s exactly what happened here.
Freddie Freeman’s Milestone Deserved Better Timing
There’s something slightly ironic about Freeman’s 2,500th hit arriving in the middle of absolute chaos. Under normal circumstances, a milestone like that becomes the headline. Instead, it almost felt buried inside a historic inning. The hit itself was classic Freeman.
No dramatic swing. No attempt to do too much. Just a sharp RBI single into center field. If you’ve watched Freeman throughout his career, that’s pretty much the perfect representation of who he has been for nearly two decades.
While baseball has spent years obsessing over launch angles, exit velocity leaderboards, and home-run totals, Freeman has quietly continued doing what elite hitters have always done: putting together quality at-bats and collecting hits.
That’s why 2,500 feels appropriate. His career was never built around one overwhelming skill. It was built around consistency. Year after year. Season after season. Pitcher after pitcher. Now he’s the only active player in Major League Baseball to reach the 2,500-hit mark. That’s remarkable company to be keeping in today’s game.
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The Road to 3,000 Suddenly Feels Real
A few years ago, 3,000 hits felt like one of those milestones that belonged to a different era. Players change teams more often. Strikeouts are higher than ever. Careers don’t always age gracefully. Yet here we are. Freeman is sitting at 2,500 hits and still looks like an impact player.
He’s on pace to collect well over 150 hits again this season. His quality-of-contact numbers remain strong. More importantly, he doesn’t look like someone hanging on for sentimental reasons.
He still looks productive. When teammates joked afterward that he needs 500 more hits, it wasn’t hard to imagine it happening. The bigger question might not be whether Freeman can do it.
The bigger question is how long he wants to keep playing. He’s already hinted that family considerations could influence his future, and that’s understandable. Baseball careers eventually become less about statistics and more about life outside the clubhouse.
Still, if he remains healthy, 3,000 no longer feels like a fantasy. It feels like a realistic target.
The Dodgers Remain Baseball’s Most Dangerous Team
Freeman’s milestone will deservedly receive most of the attention. It should. But I walked away thinking about something else. The Dodgers continue to show why they’re so difficult to beat in a postseason series. Even when opposing aces perform well. Even when stars like Ohtani are relatively quiet.
Even when games stay close deep into the night. They have too many hitters capable of turning one mistake into an avalanche. Pittsburgh learned that lesson the hard way. For six innings, the Pirates matched one of baseball’s best teams punch for punch. Then one defensive mistake opened a crack.
The Dodgers didn’t just take advantage of it. They drove straight through it. And somewhere in the middle of that offensive explosion, Freddie Freeman added another chapter to what already looks like a Hall of Fame career. The scoreboard will remember the 12-3 victory. Baseball history will remember hit number 2,500.
