The World Series features plenty of intrigue and star power, with Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and Mookie Betts on the respective rosters of the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers

Perhaps one of the slightly overlooked storylines is that first basemen Freddie Freeman and Anthony Rizzo faced each other in the postseason for the first time in their careers totaling 3,759 regular-season plate appearances.

Perhaps what makes the Rizzo-Freeman story intriguing is that both have struggled with injuries and have been able to cope with them to varying degrees.

Rizzo is making his second appearance in the World Series and his first since reaching the finals for the Chicago Cubs in 2016. Two fingers on his right hand are broken. It’s a new injury that occurred when Ryan Borucki’s slider hit his hand on a rainy afternoon in the penultimate game of the Yankees’ 94-win regular season.

Rizzo missed The ALDS came about when the Yankees knocked off the Kansas City Royals in four games. While Jon Berti and Oswaldo Cabrera successfully managed the first base, Rizzo was receiving treatment for his broken fingers.

The treatment worked well enough for Rizzo that he returned for the ALCS even while dealing with some swelling.

“The biggest thing is getting the swelling out between games. It really explodes from the pressure,” Rizzo said Wednesday. “The bones are still broken but being able to get the swelling out is very important and hopefully we can manage that as best we can throughout the Series.

Despite the swelling as the Yankees batted .250, Rizzo went 6-for-14 in the series. Along with Gleyber Torres, Soto, and Anthony Volpe, Rizzo was among four Yankees to have at least six innings, and his .429 average was his highest in the postseason series, continuing his good hitting streak after missing 62 games before returning with a broken home run. forearm

“Take it one day at a time,” Rizzo said. “Adrenaline is real. We do everything we can to keep the swelling out and wrap it between and between strokes. So it’s really just batting, defensively you’re taking it one step at a time. “I don’t feel much during the match when it comes to what we’re playing for.”

Before the ALCS, Rizzo’s previous highest average in a postseason series was hitting .360 in the 2016 World Series, where he helped the Cubs overcome a three-games-to-one deficit to end a historic 108-year drought.

“I can’t even believe it, honestly,” catcher Austin Wells said Wednesday. “To have two broken bones in your hand and to go out there and do what he can do is pretty incredible. “I think it shows how strong he is, the character he has and the fact that he’s willing to do whatever it takes to help the team win.”

Freeman is making his second World Series appearance with a right ankle sprain two days before Rizzo’s at-bat. Injury hindered him during the six-game NLCS victory over the New York Mets, and he made eight appearances in the first 11 postseason games, hitting 7-for-32 in those games, but he has no doubt he’ll play in the World Series.

“I’m not thinking about game-time decisions right now,” Freeman said. “I think with this break, it’s going to be 100 percent for me in Game 1 and we’ll get used to it after Game 1. But I don’t think there’s any question in anyone’s mind that I’m going to be in the lineup for Game 1.”

Rizzo and Freeman’s postseason appearances seemingly overlapped despite being born a month apart in 1989, a year when the Yankees won 74 games and the Dodgers unsuccessfully defended their astonishing World Series title by winning 77 games.

“He’s a player and he risks everything for his team and I wouldn’t expect anything less from him,” Rizzo said. “He’s also a world champion. He’s very respected in our game, and rightfully so. It’ll be fun to share the field with him on the World Series stage. We’ve played against each other a lot throughout our careers, and we’re pretty much in the same time zone. So at first you look across and see him there.” It will be fun to see.”

Freeman’s first postseason run was in 2013, when the Cubs were still in a rebuilding phase with Rizzo and two years away from the debut of Kris Bryant. Rizzo’s postseason debut came in 2015, when the Braves were a 95-loss team, and his contributions to the Cubs’ championship team came during Atlanta’s 93-loss season.

Freeman’s next success in the postseason came in 2018, when the Braves began a streak of six consecutive NL East titles but were eliminated by Rizzo and the Cubs in the wild-card game. Freeman and the Braves qualified again, but a late-season collapse prevented the Cubs from making the postseason in 2019. Both Rizzo and Freeman were Division winners during the pandemic-2020 season, but the Braves reached the NLCS while the Cubs lost in the wild-card round. .

Rizzo was already in the race when Freeman finally won his first championship. Yankees after the Cubs entered a rebuild. A year later, Rizzo outdueled Freeman when the Yankees were eliminated from the ALCS while the Dodgers lost in the Division Series. Last year, Freeman and the Dodgers were again eliminated in the first round, while the Yankees cruised to 82 wins and were derailed by injuries. It’s the concussion that cost Rizzo the last two months.

Freeman and Rizzo are two of the first names to rise to prominence in the past decade and beyond, debuting in less than a year.

Freeman debuted with the Braves on September 1, 2010, was about to turn 21 after hitting .319 in Triple-A and was considered among Atlanta’s top prospects at the time.

Rizzo was a Red Sox minor leaguer at the time of Freeman’s debut and finished his first season at Double-A, hitting .263. It was good enough that the Red Sox traded him to the San Diego Padres as part of the Adrian Gonzalez package.

Rizzo made his debut for the Padres on June 9, 2011, against the Washington Nationals, but San Diego opted to send him to the Cubs to replace Andrew Cashner in January 2012, and Rizzo made his debut for the Cubs in June 2012 against Freeman. He went up against the same Mets that he joined. He made countless big hits against the team.

Both received light-hearted attention when Rizzo emerged in 2021, but now both are among the underrated stories of the more serious matter of the Yankees-Dodgers World Series, the first first baseman matchup since 1981 with Steve Garvey against future Yankee is taking. general manager Bob Watson.