Freeland: “We’re pitching with a chip on our shoulder”

You’ve got to love Kyle Freeland. The guy sure puts himself out there.

The Rockies’ left-hander, who appears to be rebounding in a big way from his disastrous 2019 season, is not shy about espousing his belief in himself and his fellow starters. He also holds a bit of a grudge, which is not a bad thing for an ultra-competitive pro athlete such as Freeland.

“Like I’ve said before, I think this pitching staff is pitching with a chip on its shoulder,” said Freeland, who takes a 2-0 record and 2.41 ERA into Tuesday night’s game vs. Arizona at Coors Field. “We took (last year) personally. For me, especially, I’m very much pitching with a chip on my shoulder and want to prove that last year was nothing but a fluke.”

Well, let’s not sugarcoat things. Colorado’s starting pitching last season was bad, as illustrated by a 5.56 ERA that was the third-highest in franchise history and the highest since posting a 6.01 ERA in 1999 — three years before the humidor was installed in the bowels of Coors Field. Freeland, who went 17-7 with a 2.85 ERA in 2018, did a 180-degree turn, going 3-11 with a 6.73 ERA in 2019.

So far this season, Freeland has earned the right to say, “I told you so.”

Entering Monday night’s game against the Diamondbacks, with right-hander Jon Gray on the mound, Colorado was 11-4 and its starters had a combined 2.65 ERA, which ranked second in the National League and third in MLB.

“We are having a ton of fun,” Freeland said. “We are feeding off each other and we are executing our game plans to the best of our abilities. We are keeping teams off-balance.”

What does manager Bud Black think about his guys carrying a giant chip on their pitching shoulders?

“I love it. I think it’s great,” he said. “I’ve told them privately what I think about their talent.”

And Black believes his starters deserve a little more respect.

“Even in ’18 when we led the National League in innings pitched out of the starting rotation, that didn’t seem to get talked about a lot,” Black said. “Kyle got his fair share of acclaim, obviously, for finishing fourth in the Cy Young.”

Black, however, is perplexed that right-hander German Marquez didn’t get much attention last year. Marquez led the NL in innings pitched (174), was tied for fifth in wins (12) and ranked ninth in strikeouts (175) before he was shut down Aug. 26 due to injury.

“If you check the numbers last year, he was right there with the big boys,” Black said. “Nationally, over the last couple of years, (the starters) just haven’t gotten a lot of credit — which is fine. But these guys know how good they are and I like the mindset of proving to people that they are a good rotation.”

Top of the order. Center fielder David Dahl, who opened the season as the leadoff hitter, has been scuffling (.246 average) and has subsequently dropped toward the bottom of the order.

He hit seventh Monday night, but he went 2-for-4 with an RBI in Colorado’s loss at Seattle on Sunday, a hint that he might be getting back on track.

If he does, Black said Dahl could find himself at the top of the order again.

“It was good to see David hit the ball up the middle and over the shortstop’s head,” Black said.

“I think we have seen David try and pull the ball too much. He’s been trying not to get beat on fastballs and on pitches inside, and I think it’s cost him the outside of the plate a little bit.

“But if he continues to stay on the ball, like he did yesterday, we would like to get David as many at-bats as possible.

And leading off gets him the most, so we’ll see.”