On Saturday, Freese accompanied the Cardinals on the road for the second time in three days.

On Thursday, it was a cross-state trek to Port Charlotte to face the Rays, with Freese serving as designated hitter. Then he went up the east coast of Florida on Saturday to take on the Nationals in Viera, and that's where Freese took his next step forward by playing defense.

It was his first appearance in the field this spring, after getting spot duty as a designated hitter or pinch-hitter in three previous games. Freese is recuperating from a left Achilles' tendon injury he suffered over the winter in an auto accident. He was reassigned to Minor League camp on March 8 so that he could get healthy. Now that Freese has recovered, he's seeing more and more time with the big club. He hasn't been moved back down the hall from the Minor League clubhouse to the big league clubhouse, but the day could be coming.

"I have fun playing in these games," Freese said after rapping two hits and playing a solid third base on Saturday. "That's where I want to be at some point, hopefully in the near future, whether it's Opening Day or down the road some other time. I just want to play in the big leagues."

At the start of the spring, Freese was the apparent favorite to inherit most of the playing time at third while Troy Glaus recovered from right shoulder surgery. Joe Mather was also in the mix, though, and as Mather looked good early in camp and Freese was hindered by the injury, Mather took command. When Freese was sent out, it appeared that the contest had been all but decided.

That is definitely not the case now. Manager Tony La Russa insists other players are in the mix as well, such as Tyler Greene, Brian Barden, Brendan Ryan and Joe Thurston. But the preference is to have a potent bat at the corner, and Mather and Freese are the two power hitters in the bunch. Freese hit .306 with a .361 on-base percentage, a .550 slugging percentage and 26 home runs for Triple-A Memphis in 2008.

"All along, when Glaus got hurt, it was Freese and Mather," La Russa said. "But [Freese] never had a chance. I didn't have any idea whether he could get healthy or not. It looks like he may be, and we've got two weeks. If he looks like he's moving all right, he'll get more playing time. ... There's a couple weeks left, so there's time for him to make his mark."

Freese moved well on Saturday. He singled and scored, legged out a double and made a nice play on a hard-hit ball to his right. Another well-struck ball skipped past him, but it was a tough play, scored as a base hit.

It was not a bad showing for someone with so few innings and at-bats this spring. That may be the biggest hurdle for Freese to overcome -- the fact that his competitors on the Cardinals and opponents from other clubs are so much further along.

So he's trying to concentrate on something simpler than making the team.

"The only thing I'm worried about is being healthy whenever the season opener is," Freese said. "Wherever it is, is not my call. I just want to make sure I'm healthy and see what happens. I'm getting there [offensively]. It's obviously going to take some time. But I keep getting some at-bats, games have started in the Minors, and up here, they're still going on. Hopefully, I'll still get some at-bats so I can continue to get in the groove."