Freeland shuts down Angels
Los Angeles uses untraditional pitching by committee
ANAHEIM, CALIF.» The Angels trotted out their bullpen to pitch the entirety of Tuesday’s finale against Colorado, with Noe Ramirez becoming the first player in Los Angeles history to start a game the day after earning a save and six other relievers mostly keeping the Rockies’ offense at bay.
But while Los Angeles’ untraditional Johnny Wholestaff approach was effective, Rockies’ ace Kyle Freeland was more so, throwing six innings of one-run ball in a fifth straight quality start before the Colorado bullpen locked down the 3-2, bounce-back win.
Carlos Gonzalez’s two-run homer to right to bring around Charlie Blackmon gave the Rockies a 2-0 advantage off Ramirez and the Angels in the first, but the Los Angeles trio of Jim Johnson, Taylor Cole and Cam Bedrosian shut Colorado down over the next five innings.
Cole, recalled earlier in the day from Triple-A Salt Lake, was particularly efficient by working ahead to seven of the nine Colorado batters he faced during three scoreless innings to get Anaheim to the fifth.
In the bottom of that frame, David Fletcher’s RBI single scored Eric Young Jr. as the Angels got on the board at 2-1, but Freeland limited the damage with a caughtlooking strikeout of Mike Trout on a fastball at the top of the zone.
Freeland then walked Albert Pujols to open the sixth but responded with three straight outs, ending his outing and lowering his season ERA to 2.90 — on pace
to challenge Ubaldo Jimenez’s franchise record of 2.88 in 2010.
The Rockies threatened to extend their 2-1 lead in the sixth only to see Nolan Arenado smoke a 103.7 mph line out to second base to terminate a first-and-third situation, but finally added some insurance the next frame with Ian Desmond’s sacrifice fly to make it 3-1.
That run would prove vital as Scott Oberg spelled Freeland in the seventh, working flawlessly in the frame before encountering trouble in the eighth. Fletcher led off with a single, then Trout’s fly out advanced him to second, a wild pitch got him to third and Pujols’ sacrifice fly brought him home to make it 3-2.
But Wade Davis completed the bullpen’s amends for the collapse that led to a 10-7 defeat the previous evening, setting Los Angeles down in order to secure his National League-leading 36th save.