Freeland’s next big test comes against the first-place Yankees

Kyle Freeland was a record-setting ace for the Rockies last year. Now, the southpaw is struggling to find his way. He gets his next chance Friday night against the mighty Yankees in New York.

He’s optimistic he can still turn things around.

“I worked on some things in my bullpen yesterday. (I’m) feeling good about it,” Freeland said Wednesday. “Cleaned up some mistakes, took the positives, took the negatives and stepping forward now.”

Freeland returned from Triple-A last week and lasted four innings against Cincinnati.

“I felt I did a good job, being on the edges,” Freeland said. “As the game went on, I started being a little too much up in the zone. I’m going to continue to work on living in the bottom of the zone. But, overall, the line doesn’t look great (but) a lot of soft contact, and they capitalized behind that soft contact.

“Things will start turning. You wouldn’t be at this level if you don’t know how to make adjustments — and make adjustments on the fly and in between starts. So, that’s what I’ve been doing in the minor leagues and what I’ll continue to do the rest of my career.”

Asked what he worked on after being demoted to Triple-A, Freeland said: “Relearning how to pitch to both sides of the plate, and not rely so heavily on one side of the plate and fastball and slider inside, where the book kind of got out on me this year and hitters were aware of what I was going to do and kind of fed right into it.

And then wherever we’d try to go down and away and use both sides of the plate, I wasn’t able to do it, just because we relied so heavily on pitching inside.”

“My biggest takeaway was getting that feeling back of pitching both sides of the plate with all my pitches.”

The Denver native made Rockies history last season, breaking former all-star Ubaldo Jimenez’s franchise record for a single season by posting a 2.84 ERA. He finished fourth in the National League’s Cy Young Award voting.

Manager Bud Black saw some promise in Freeland’s outing last weekend, including what he called a more consistent delivery. Freeland’s next step is to try and find a way to keep hitters off-balance.

“I think keeping the ball down,” Black said of what he hopes to see Friday.

Freeland has a 7.39 ERA and a 2-6 record this season in 13 starts. If he can begin to resemble the breakout star he was last year, he might be able to help save the Rockies’ fading postseason hopes.

“Kyle, last year, had a ton of confidence,” Black said. “He was pitching well, and confidence just sort of grows when you’re throwing well.”