Emotional Freddie Freeman gets hug from Bryce Harper in return to Dodgers as ailing son recovers

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Freddie Freeman singled and got a hug from Phillies star Bryce Harper in his return to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ lineup on Monday night after missing eight games to be with his ailing 3-year-old son, who is out of danger after a serious medical diagnosis.

“I’m back," he said before the Dodgers' 5-3 victory, "so that means good things are happening at the Freeman home.”

Freeman received a standing ovation in his first at-bat. The Phillies joined the applause from their dugout. The pitch clock was stopped as he stepped out of the batter's box, removed his helmet and waved to the crowd, then touched his right hand to his heart.

“It means a lot that the Phillies were respectful of that situation,” Freeman said. “I wasn't expecting it, but very much appreciated from the Dodgers fans. They made it really hard to hit in that first at-bat, but that's a good thing.”

The response clearly moved Freeman, who took several deep breaths before stepping in against Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola.

“I was doing OK tipping my hat and then my dad was sitting first row with my stepmom,” he said. “He was, I don't know if I could call him crying, but he was choked up and teary-eyed and that's what really got me going.”

Freeman struck out swinging to end the first inning.

“It was one of the most potent strikeouts I've ever had in my big league career,” he said.

The crowd chanted “Freddie! Freddie!” before Freeman singled in the third. Harper was waiting for him with a consoling embrace.

“Bryce probably texts at least four times during the nine days, really checking in,” said Freeman, adding that every Phillies player who reached first extended well wishes to him.

“I'm tired and worn out,” he said, fatigue evident in his voice. “It's just an emotional day.”

After an initial diagnosis proved incorrect, Maximus Freeman was found to have Guillain-Barre syndrome, something Freeman and his wife, Chelsea, had never heard of. The rare neurological disorder occurs when the body’s immune system attacks the peripheral nervous system and causes nerve damage and muscle weakness.

“Seeing one of your kids on a ventilator fighting, it was hard,” Freeman said, his voice choking. “That's the heartbreaking thing. No one deserves to go through something like this. I know you parents understand that. You'd switch in a second to take that pain, that suffering away from your kid in a heartbeat. When you feel hopeless, like Chelsea and I did, that's hard.”

Speaking before the game, he cried at times and wiped his eyes and nose with a towel.

“If you talked to me six days ago, I would never have been able to speak,” Freeman said. “The reason I’m able to get through this is because of the huge wins we’ve been getting the last few days with him. It’s been a miraculous recovery, that’s what they say to us.”

Maximus first got sick during the All-Star break in July, when the family traveled to the game in Texas to cheer on Freeman. Four days later, the child couldn't sit up or walk and eventually stopped eating and drinking.

Freeman said his son experienced a loss of sensation that spread from his feet to his shoulders and had difficulty breathing.

He was rushed to the hospital near the family's home in Orange County and put on a ventilator. Maximus received two rounds of intravenous immunoglobulin, a biological agent and pooled antibody that helps restore a compromised immune system.

“Then it was a waiting game,” Freeman said.

He and Chelsea sat bedside in the pediatric intensive care unit for hours, staring intently at their son for even the slightest twitch.

“He started to shoulder shrug, which was a massive sign for us," Freeman said. “It means we were closer to potentially getting the ventilator out.”

Doctors were encouraged at how quickly Maximus’ paralysis retreated from the top to the bottom of his body.

“We ticked (off) the little wins we could get during this time,” said Freeman, whose mother died of melanoma when he was 10.

The ventilator came out “at 10:46, I'll never forget it,” he said. “Within six minutes he was sitting on me. I can’t tell you how good that felt, to be able to hold my son again.”

Maximus is one of the Freemans' three sons. Charlie is the oldest, followed by Brandon and Maximus, a name Chelsea came upon.

“That was a strong name,” Freeman said. “I didn’t know it was going to be proven to be true within four years of his life of how strong this little boy is.”

Freeman was greeted Monday by his teammates and Dodgers staff members wearing blue #MaxStrong T-shirts with his last name and jersey number 5 on the back. Manager Dave Roberts said a team employee came up with the idea.

“That was the first time I cried today, when I walked in and saw those," Freeman said. “It means a lot.”

His baseball family reached out to Freeman during the crisis, including his current teammates, his former team the Atlanta Braves, and Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo.

“The support and the love that have been shown to us, it gave us hope,” Freeman said. “It was needed, it really was.”

Maximus is back home, doing physical therapy to relearn how to walk and move his fingers, which are in a claw position.

“You can see his smile again,” Freeman said.

The boy was eager to watch his dad play against the Phillies on Monday.

“We’ve been told that he’s going to make a full recovery,” Freeman said. “We just don’t know how long that will be.”

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Los Angeles Dodgers' Freddie Freeman bats during the first inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies in Los Angeles, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. Freeman has missed last eight games as his youngest son Maximus was diagnosed with Guillan-Barre syndrome. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Freddie Freeman waves to the stands during the first inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies in Los Angeles, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. Freeman has missed last eight games as his youngest son Maximus was diagnosed with Guillan-Barre syndrome. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Freddie Freeman celebrates after hitting a double to score Nick Ahmed during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

Emotional Freddie Freeman returns to Dodgers as his 3-year-old son recovers from rare medical issue

FILE - Los Angeles Dodgers' Freddie Freeman plays during a baseball game, Thursday, July 11, 2024, in Philadelphia. Freeman and his wife Chelsea said in a joint social-media post that their 3-year-old son Maximus is suffering from Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Emotional Freddie Freeman returns to Dodgers as his 3-year-old son recovers from rare medical issue

Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets Friday, a day after the militant group’s leader vowed to retaliate against Israel for a mass bombing attack, the Israeli military and the militant group said.

Israel’s military said the rockets came in three waves Friday afternoon targeting sites along the ravaged border with Lebanon.

In Gaza, Palestinian authorities said 15 people were killed overnight in multiple Israeli attacks.

An airstrike early Friday morning in Gaza City hit a family home, killing six people including an unknown number of children, Gaza’s Civil Defense said. Another person was killed in Gaza City when a strike hit a group of people on a street.

Israel maintains it only targets militants and accuses Hamas and other armed groups of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas. The military, which rarely comments on individual strikes, had no immediate comment.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. The ministry does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count but says a little over half of those killed were women and children.

Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Meanwhile, the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah is promising to retaliate for deadly attacks on its communication devices after Israel’s defense minister announced a “new phase” of the war. Fears are increasing that 11 months of exchanges of fire between the two sides will escalate into all-out war.

Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war. They have come close to a full-blown war on several occasions.

Here's the latest:

Palestinian authorities say 15 people were killed overnight in the Gaza Strip in multiple Israeli attacks.

An airstrike early Friday morning in Gaza City hit a family home, killing six people including an unknown number of children, Gaza’s Civil Defense said. Another person was killed in Gaza City when a strike hit a group of people on a street.

In Beit Hanoun, north of Gaza City, another person was killed and several others injured when a vehicle was hit by an Israeli strike, the Civil Defense said.

Late Thursday, six more people were killed in a strike that hit a home in the center of Gaza City, while another was killed in Beit Lahya, north of Gaza City.

Israel maintains it only targets militants and accuses Hamas and other armed groups of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas. The military, which rarely comments on individual strikes, had no immediate comment.

The war has caused vast destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.

BAGHDAD — A leader of an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia was killed Friday in a strike in Syria, a war monitor and a militia official said.

Iraq’s Kataeb Hezbollah group — which is different from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah — said in a statement that Abu Haidar al-Khafaji was killed “while performing his duties as a security advisor in Damascus.”

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had earlier reported that a leader in Iraq’s Kataeb Hezbollah group was killed and another person injured in a drone strike on the car they were traveling in on the road to the Damascus airport.

An official with an Iraqi militia confirmed that a car carrying a group of militia members was struck in Damascus, killing one person and injuring three others. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

There was no comment from Israeli officials on the strike. Israel frequently strikes Iranian and Iran-linked groups in Syria but rarely acknowledges the strikes.

Tensions have heightened in the region following a wave of apparently remotely detonated explosions in Lebanon targeting pagers and walkie talkies belonging to the Lebanese Hezbollah. The attacks, widely blamed on Israel, which has not commented on them, killed at least 37 people - including two children - and wounded about 3,000.

— By Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad

BEIRUT — Israel’s military killed two Hezbollah members who were planting explosives along the border over the weekend, Israel’s military and an official with a Lebanese group said.

The official with a Lebanese group said the two members of the militant group were killed Sunday and their bodies were taken by Israeli troops because they were too close to the fence along the tense frontier. The official spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

On Thursday, Israel’s military released a video it said was taken by one of the fighters showing the militants coming under fire. The military said that the two fighters were killed by Israeli troops as they tried to plant an improvised explosive device near a military post.

In the days following the tense border interaction, thousands of devices exploded in different parts of Lebanon and Syria, killing 37 people and wounding around 3,000 others. The attack was blamed on Israel, and many of those killed or injured were members of Hezbollah.

Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue contributed to this report.

Hezbollah members carry the coffin of their comrade who was killed when a handheld device exploded, during a funeral procession in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Right-wing Israelis with relatives held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and their supporters, rally against a hostage deal, in Jerusalem, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. The placard in Hebrew reads: " To bathe in his blood." (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Houses are engulfed in fire as the Israeli army raided the northern West Bank town of Qabatiya on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Palestinians duck for cover as the Israeli army raided the northern West Bank town of Qabatiya on Thursday, Sept.19, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

FILE - Hezbollah fighters carry one of the coffins of four fallen comrades who were killed Tuesday after their handheld pagers exploded, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)