Rockies 4, Brewers 0. Shortstop Trevor Story homers twice and Kyle Freeland pitches 6L scoreless innings for the win. »
During pregame at Coors Field, Rockies manager Bud Black made note of the continued maturation of Kyle Freeland, who had a strong first half of his rookie season in 2017 before sputtering and eventually being sent to the bullpen in September.
“The last couple of outings, as the game has gone on, his delivery has gotten better, his pitch-making has gotten better,” Black said. “For whatever reason, it seems like his calmness, poise and his overall presence increased the last couple of starts.”
Freeland’s upward trend continued Saturday night, when Denver’s native southpaw dazzled through 6L innings of scoreless baseball -- and shortstop Trevor Story homered twice, in addition to an RBI double -- in Colorado’s 4-0 win over the Brewers.
The victory snapped the Rockies’ three-game losing streak, and by the time Freeland got the hook in the seventh, he exited to a standing ovation that punctuated another night in which he showed all the signs of becoming a dominant big-league starter.
He worked around traffic via four hits and four walks. He broke a handful of Brewers’ bats with hard-to-barrel offspeed pitches. He ignored the distraction of a woman with colored hair who rushed left-center in the top of the fourth, causing a brief delay, and then smoked a seeing-eye single to right in the bottom of the frame.
Colorado’s bullpen then did its part to put a bow on Freeland’s grinding, focused effort.
Bryan Shaw and Mike Dunn each recorded one out to end the seventh with two runners on and Freeland’s gem wholly intact, while Adam Ottavino sent Milwaukee down in order in the eighth before Wade Davis closed the door in the ninth.