Arenado lights it up, Freeland shuts it down, Rox take three of four from Mets

After suffering some brutal losses on their most recent road trip, the Colorado Rockies returned home, where they have been considerably worse, to face the New York Mets in a four-game set. With questions mounting about ongoing bullpen woes, the offense suddenly has emerged with one of their hottest stretches in recent memory.

The offense continued to fuel the fire on Thursday afternoon’s series-clinching 6-4 win over the New York Mets. Team captain Nolan Arenado—who experienced the worst slump of his career on that road trip—drove in five runs for Colorado.

Kyle Freeland did his usual thing. His usual quality start thing. His usual Coors Field on a sunny afternoon thing. He is now sporting a sub-3 ERA at home.

And that bullpen, while still not perfect, had to reach into its farthest depths and still managed to show some huge steps in the right direction including a potentially huge confidence-boosting MLB debut from Yency Almonte.

Todd Frazier jumped all over a high fastball from Freeland in the first, hitting a line drive shot into the bleachers in left, giving the Mets their sixth first-inning run in the four-game series.

But the Rockies answered immediately as they did in every game of the set not played against Cy Young contender Jacob DeGrom. DJ LeMahieu lathered a double off the high wall in right-center field and Charlie Blackmon was plinked before Arenado unloaded on one, hitting his fourth home run against Steven Matz, his 15th of the season, and his third in the last three games.

That quickly, the Rockies were on top but Arenado wasn’t done. In the second, a leadoff single from Noel Cuevas and a two-out single from Blackmon—who took a pitch of his shoetops and lined it softly into center—set the stage for a few more RBI for the Rockies star third baseman.

Arenado hit a high line drive to right but not quite hard enough to leave the park for his second straight three-run homer. Instead, he would have to settle for two runs on a double, giving him five RBI in the course of two at-bats.

The Mets got one back in the third thanks to a swinging bunt single off the bat of Amed Rosario, a sac bunt, and a single up the middle by Brandon Nimmo. Freeland escaped any further damage by getting Frazier to ground into an inning-ending double play.

The Rockies starter found himself in a spot of trouble in the fourth. Staked to a three-run lead, he walked Wilmer Flores after striking out Michael Conforto, gave up a single to Kevin Plawecki. He struck out Jose Bautista for the second out but then walked Jose Reyes to load the bases.

The pair of walks were the last thing he wanted in that situation and it looked for a moment like they would end up being disastrous when a pop-up off the bat of Amed Rosario headed straight for no-man’s land between second base, first base, and right field.

But LeMahieu took charge, have the best angle, and attempted to make an over-the-shoulder-basket-catch that bounced away from him for a moment, but he reached out with the bare hand to make a very difficult play and end the inning. Had the ball skipped away from him a bit, a real possibility considering the speed LeMahieu was running, it could have easily tied the game. Instead, Colorado departed the field still hanging on to a 5-2 lead.

Colorado missed an opportunity to add in the bottom half of that frame. This time with LeMahieu (error) and Blackmon (base hit) aboard, Matz was able to get Arenado looking and Story was barely unable to beat out a grounder to third, stranding both runners.

Freeland finally put together his first 1-2-3 inning of the game in the fifth. He gave up a walk (erased on a double play) and a single in the sixth, prompting a visit from Bud Black but the Rockies manager decided to stay with his starter who rewarded that faith by getting the final out of the frame on a grounder to third.

That finished off his afternoon with a quality start as he made way for Jeff Hoffman in the seventh.

Hoffman’s outing began with an intriguing match-up, facing off against Jose Reyes. Both players were a part of the trade that sent Troy Tulowitzki to Toronto. Reyes got the better of Hoffman with a single up the middle but he was taken off the basepaths on the Rockies fourth double play of the game. Dominic Smith lined another single to center, though, and Black went back to the bullpen for Chris Rusin who struck out Nimmo to end the inning.

Rusin stayed on for the eighth but couldn’t get an out, giving up singles to Conforto and Frazier to put runners at first and third with nobody out.

That meant Bud Black had to turn to the rookie who was called up just prior to the game, Almonte, to make his MLB debut. With Adam Ottavino being used so heavily as of late, Almonte had to assume that important role in his first bit of action.

Almonte pounded the strike zone with five straight fastballs, four of which were fouled off, threw a slider out of the zone, then got Wilmer Flores to fly out to right for a sac fly. He fell behind Devin Meseraco in the ensuing at-bat but kept locating his good fastball (sitting 97 mph) and got the grounder to third for the Rockies fifth double play of the game.

That tied the franchise mark for most ground ball double plays in a nine-inning game.

Colorado got some insurance in the bottom of the eighth when Ian Desmond drew his third walk in the game, giving him six base-on-balls in his last eight plate appearances. He advanced to third on a single to left from Chris Iannetta, making a heads-up hustle play on a ball that was slightly mishandled. Desmond trotted home on a sac fly to center from Gerardo Parra.

With both of his typical back-end relievers unavailable, Black turned to Jake McGee, who has had his ups and downs all season, to record the final three outs. He immediately surrendered a gap triple Plawecki who came in on a groundout from Reyes. He got Rosario to fly out to right but then gave up a two-out, two-strike double to Dom Smith to bring the tying run to the plate in the form of hometown kid Brandon Nimmo.

But McGee struck him out on three pitches to let Rockies fans exhale, earn his first save of the season, and secure the win.

Colorado improved to 37-38, 14-20 at home, and have at least momentarily moved into a tie with the San Francisco Giants for third place in the NL West. There are 87 games remaining on the schedule.

Final Stats:

Kyle Freeland: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 4 K

Jeff Hoffman: 0.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER

Chris Rusin: 0.1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, K

Yency Almonte: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER

Nolan Arenado: 2-for-4, 1 R, 5 RBI

DJ LeMahieu: 2-for-4, 2 R

Charlie Blackmon: 2-for-3, 2 R

What’s Next:

The Rockies welcome in the Miami Marlins for a three-game set at Coors Field. The first game will see Jon Gray face off against Wei-Yin Chen. First pitch Friday night at 6:40 Mountain Time.