In his last start before the all-star break, Kyle Freeland punched out a light in the Rockies’ dugout in a fit of frustration. Monday night in Milwaukee, the left-hander was simply lights out.
Freeland blanked the Brewers for seven innings, giving up just four hits, striking out seven and walking only one in Colorado’s 2-0 win at American Family Field. Freeland threw 99 pitches, 58 for strikes.
But as is almost always the case with the Rockies, the victory didn’t come without late drama. Christian Yelich tagged closer Daniel Bard with a leadoff single in the ninth, and then second baseman Brendan Rodgers muffed Willy Adames’ would-be groundball double play.
Bard got Andrew McCutchen to fly out to center, though Yelich tagged up and advanced to third. Hunter Renfroe hit a blooper into no man’s land in shallow right, but Rodgers redeemed himself by making a difficult catch for the second out.
Then Bard walked pinch-hitter Rowdy Tellez to load the bases. But Rodgers snared Luis Urias’ line drive for the final out, giving Bard his 21st save in 23 chances.
With their victory, the Rockies dodged a four-game sweep by the Brewers and also snapped the Brewers’ seven-game winning streak against them.
In Freeland’s previous three starts in July, he was 0-2 with an 8.44 ERA, with opponents hitting .306 over those three games. Monday night, however, Freeland looked like the pitcher who went 17-7 with a 2.85 ERA in 2018, finishing fourth in voting for the National League Cy Young Award.
And Monday was a 180-degree turn from his start against San Diego on July 14 at Coors Field. After he was pulled in that game, Freeland took a bat to a light fixture in the dugout after coughing up a 5-2 lead.
“I just didn’t like where that light was in the dugout — it didn’t look good,” deadpanned Freeland after the Rockies beat the Padres, 8-5.
The Rockies didn’t do much damage against Milwaukee left-hander Aaron Ashby, but they did enough.
Red-hot catcher Elias Diaz put the Rockies on the board in the third with a leadoff homer off of Ashby. It was Diaz’s sixth homer of the season. Diaz finished the night 1-for-3 with two strikeouts, but he entered the night with a multiple-hit performance in six consecutive games, during which he hit .500 (12-for-24) with five doubles, a triple and seven RBIs. It ranks as the longest multi-hit streak by a catcher in franchise history.
The Rockies increased their lead to 2-0 in the fifth with some textbook baseball. Garrett Hampson, Colorado’s resident roadrunner, led off with a single and stole second base, his sixth theft in seven attempts. Charlie Blackmon advanced Hampson to third with a groundout to second and Yonathan Daza drove in Hampson with a sacrifice fly to deep right.
Ashby nearly matched Freeland in his seven-inning, 111-pitch performance, striking out nine and retiring the final seven batters he faced. The Rockies tagged him for just five hits and walked only once.
The Rockies, in the middle of playing 18 games over 17 consecutive games, return to Coors Field Tuesday night to open a two-game set against the White Sox. The Rockies then host the Dodgers for four games.
