FANTASTIC FREELAND
Starter tosses 7 shutout innings
Youth served the Rockies quite well Tuesday night at frosty Coors Field.
Left-hander Kyle Freeland, 24, pitched one of the best games of his budding career, tossing seven scoreless innings of three-hit ball. He struck out eight, walked just two and needed only 90 pitches to get the job done.
Shortstop Trevor Story, 25, blasted a grand slam in Colorado’s five-run second inning.
In the fifth, left fielder David Dahl, 24, hit a stand-up triple and then scored on a single by Ian Desmond.
The end result was a stress-free, 8-0 victory over San Diego. For a Rockies team that entered the night just 3-7 at home, it was a much-needed breakout performance. Colorado improved to 1312 with its second shutout of the season.
Freeland, pitching with precision, especially early in the game, won his first game since July 30, a span of 16 outings (12 starts, four relief appearances). He worked both sides of the plate and mixed in all off his pitches. He worked out of a bit of a jam in the fifth when he walked Austin Hedges and gave up a two-out double to Manuel Margot, but he escaped by striking out Franchy Cordero for the third time.
Padres lefty Eric Lauer was making his big-league debut, and the Rockies put the heat on him immediately, scoring two runs in the first, aided by a throwing error by Padres second baseman Jose Pirela.
Story’s 428-foot shot in the second, it turned out, salted the game away. Colorado had jammed the bases with back-toback singles by DJ LeMahieu and Charlie Blackmon and a walk by Nolan Arenado. Then Story picked out Lauer’s 1-1, 92 mph fastball and drove it to left at 107 mph. It was Colorado’s first grand slam of the season and the second of Story’s career.
Story’s first slam came on April 21, 2017, vs. the Giants and righthander Johnny Cueto. The shortstop leads Colorado with 18 RBIs, and he has put together an excellent homestand, batting .375 (6for-16) with two homers, a double, a triple and nine RBIs.