Dodgers' Freddie Freeman, an American-Canadian citizen, makes MLB history

Freddie Freeman of the Los Angeles Dodgers reached 200 hits for the first time in his career with a single in the first inning of Friday night's 5-1 loss to the visiting San Francisco Giants.

The seven-time all-star and American-Canadian citizen singled to right field off San Francisco's Sean Manaea. Freeman was greeted with chants of "Freddie! Freddie!" as he stood on first base. He saluted the crowd by removing his helmet.

The last Dodgers player with 200 hits in a season was Adrian Beltre in 2004, and their last first baseman to do it was Steve Garvey in 1980.

"I've always had sights set on it," Freeman told reporters. "Two hundred just means that you're in there a lot, you're healthy, you're playing every day, and you had a pretty good year. So, 200 is definitely pretty cool."

The 34-year-old had 199 hits last season and 191 in 2018.

Freeman holds dual citizenship as both his parents are from Ontario. He has also represented Canada in the World Baseball Classic in 2017 and earlier this year.

On Monday, he became the first Dodgers first baseman in history to join the 20-20 club and just the second first baseman with 20-plus steals. Jackie Robinson had 29 in 1947. Freeman has 26 homers and 21 stolen bases.

Earlier in the week, Freeman became one of four players in MLB history to post 25-plus homers, 50-plus doubles and 20-plus stolen bases in a season. He remains four doubles shy of becoming the first player with 60-plus doubles since Charlie Gehringer (60) and Joe Medwick (64) in 1936.

Freeman is on track for his highest batting average (.334) and on-base percentage (.411) in a full season, excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 (.341, .462) when he won the National League MVP Award.

"I think this season, as a whole, it's unprecedented," said manager Dave Roberts. "If you look at the hits, the average, the home runs, the doubles, the stolen bases by position. … It seems like every night, we're always tipping our cap to Freddie on some accomplishment, and that's fantastic."

Freeman also made a sparkling defensive play in foul territory in the eighth. A ball hit by Wilmer Flores bounced out of his glove and Freeman caught it barehanded for the first out.