Freeland exits early; Rockies comeback incomplete in loss

With hopes of starting another four-game winning streak on Tuesday night, Kyle Freeland delivered a solid start until departing unexpectedly with a groin injury in the sixth.

A late comeback was not enough after Bryan Shaw couldn’t steady the ship during a five-run inning that sank the Rockies, 8-7.

Freeland retired the first six batters of the game in hopes of matching the previous night’s performance by Chi Chi González until Nick Ahmed tagged a slider to left center field for a solo blast to put up Arizona, 1-0.

In the top of the third, Trevor Story singled to lead off the inning before drawing five pickoff attempts from DBacks starter Alex Young during Nolan Arenado’s at bat. After the fifth throw-over, Arenado mashed his 31st home run of the year on a cutter down in the zone to flip the lead, 2-1.

Freeland didn’t get far before returning a run to Arizona, loading the bases on two hits and an error by Ryan McMahon. A humpback liner for the first out of the inning gave the lefty from Thomas Jefferson HS a chance to escape the jam unscathed on a double play, but veteran Adam Jones singled and Ahmed followed with his second RBI of the game on a sacrifice fly to put ahead the home club, 3-2.

As we’ve been accustomed to seeing lately, Colorado quickly came back with a run in the top half of the fifth. Freeland helped himself with a two-out base on balls and Raimel Tapia responded with a single. Story singled to drive home Freeland to knot it at three apiece.

A quick fifth gave the 26-year-old an opportunity at a quality start and with one out and a runner on second – Jones, who reached on Arenado’s seventh of the season – but Freeland was forced to exit the game due to an apparent groin injury in the sixth inning.

Bryan Shaw promptly walked the first two batters to load the bases, gave up a two-run single to pinch hitter Jake Lamb, a single to David Peralta and a triple to Eduardo Escobar. When the smoke cleared, Arizona scored five runs. The score may have been 8-3, but the cockroaches were not dead yet.

The Rockies rebounded for three runs in the seventh when Story recorded his fourth-straight hit on four different pitches to score a run with the bases loaded; Daniel Murphy swatted his second double of the game to finish the rally and keep Colorado within striking distance.

Yency Almonte, the man who got the final out of the frustrating sixth, chipped in for a scoreless seventh and D.J. Johnson did the same in the eighth for his first appearance since being recalled on Sunday.

Charlie Blackmon kept it interesting by beginning the ninth with a pinch hit double off DBacks’ closer Archie Bradley. Story nearly completed his perfect night, but fell short of tying the ballgame with a homer, settling for a sacrifice fly that scored Blackmon that reduced to lead to one.

The loss drops Colorado to 57-69 and back out to 10.5 games behind the final Wild Card spot. Tomorrow’s 1:40 pm game will be broadcast exclusively on YouTube at www.youtube.com/mlb.