Freeland’s gem squandered
Kyle Freeland was darn near perfect Sunday afternoon.
But three minuscule mistakes — two off-target breaking balls in the fifth, and a changeup left up in the zone in the eighth — cost him as the Rockies lineup failed to give the left-hander support in a 2- 0 loss at Kauffman Stadium.
Freeland’s second miss went for an RBI single that put the Royals ahead 1- 0, and Maikel Garcia smacked the third for a solo homer that barely clipped the center field wall and chased Freeland from the game.
“I noticed from the first inning on they were swinging and they were trying to make contact, so I let them do it, and let them try and hit it as far as they could to center field,” Freeland told reporters postgame after allowing just four hits over seven- plus innings with zero walks.
“Obviously the one in the eighth inning there, the wind stopped and it was able to get out. … It was the right pitch, we were throwing fastballs and sliders inside. He was aware of that. Threw a changeup, it was just elevated, it was away but just elevated, and that was the mistake.”
With the loss, the Rockies finished 2- 5 over their seven- game road swing through Arizona and Kansas City.
After riding big innings to wins Friday and Saturday in K.C., the Rockies were unable to string hits together against Kansas City pitching Sunday. As a result, they were forced to settle for a 2-1 series win against a Royals team sitting in last place in the
AL Central. Colorado is now 11-21 away from Coors Field.
The Rockies have scored just six runs combined in Freeland’s last four road starts, with two of those shutout losses. Only one runner got past second base Sunday while Colorado struck out 14 times.
Ezequiel Tovar’s twoout double in the seventh was the Rockies’ only extra-base hit. And he was stranded af ter Austin Wynns hit an infield popout to end the frame.
The Rockies put runners on first and second in the bottom of the ninth with singles from Mike Moustakas and Harold Castro. But Elehuris Montero swung and missed on three straight breaking balls, and Tovar was caught looking at a breaking pitch on the outside corner to end the game.
“Kyle’s been around,” Rockies manager Bud Black told reporters postgame. “He knows there’s going to be games like that when you get locked into a duel with the other pitching staff.
“… There’s not a lot you can say (to Kyle). He knows he pitched well.”
The tepid offense spoiled a masterful start from Freeland, who was coming off a string of sub-par outings that saw him give up 12 earned runs over 12 2/3 innings.
While the lefty wasn’t blowing the ball past hitters — he struck out just one batter — he effectively worked the strike zone while producing seven ground ball outs during a perfect start to the first 4 1/3 innings.
MJ Melendez’s sharp line drive to the right side, which kicked up off the
grass, broke up the perfecto with a one- out double. One out later, Michael Massey put an end to the shutout, driving Freeland’s wayward 0-2 curveball for a two- out RBI single that gave Kansas City a 1- 0 lead after five innings.
The Royals didn’t hurt Freeland again until Garcia’s lead- off solo shot in the eighth — and even that had to be reviewed after the ball bounced on the top of the wall twice before being snatched out of the air by a fan.
Black pulled Freeland immediately af ter the homer, despite the lefty being at just 89 pitches (64 strikes) for the game. The long start was just what the doctor ordered at the end of a stretch of 17 games in 17 days that saw the Rockies go 7-10.
“I’m always trying to go deep into games every sin
gle start, but knowing that (the bullpen) really needed a blow there. … It was nice to see myself get into the eighth inning like that,” Freeland said.
“( The Royals) were swinging the bat so when I see that from a team it just gets down to execution. If you’re executing pitches, they get themselves out.”
The Rockies were unable to capitalize on the early window provided by Freeland, despite touching Kansas City right-hander Brady Singer for singles in five of the first six innings. Colorado stranded all five runners as Singer struck out seven while throwing a high volume of pitches (95, 65 for strikes) through 5 2/3 scoreless innings.
Reliever Taylor Clarke got Nolan Jones looking at a 3-2 slider on the outside corner to end the sixth with Moustakas in motion.