Freeland fails against Dodgers to put Rockies behind 19.5 games in NL West

Los Angeles was poised to come out attacking after Monday night’s 9-1 drubbing at the hands of Colorado; their target on Tuesday night was LHP Kyle Freeland.

Making his fourth start since a demotion to Triple-A, Freeland started the game in a downpour, his third such issue with Mother Nature following rain delays of three hours on July 13 and nearly two hours on July 24.

The Dodgers and A.J. Pollock waited until the second pitch before bombarding the 26-year-old with a 363 ft blast to left field that put the Rockies behind, 1-0. Two more runs would cross home plate before Freeland would escape, but not after 31 pitches and L.A. had a 3-0 lead.

The Thomas Jefferson High School graduate continued to struggle, giving up back-to-back home runs to the seventh and eighth hitters at the start of the second inning. In the third, it was more of the same. A leadoff walk to Justin Turner and a double by Cody Bellinger would come around to score on Tyler White’s single. Before his first opportunity to help himself at the plate, Freeland was already behind 7-0.

Colorado would not cave, striking for three runs in the bottom half of the third inning after David Dahl’s one-out triple to right field, extending his modest hitting streak to eight games. Trevor Story struck out on a high and inside called third strike by home plate umpire John Bacon who was making his Major League debut behind the dish.

Nolan Arenado picked up his teammate with a double to put the Rockies on the board, his 80th RBI of the season. Daniel Murphy singled to left and an error by Alex Verdugo allowed Arenado to score and the first baseman to pull up at third base. Ian Desmond doubled and Colorado closed the gap to 7-3 after three frames.

Dodgers’ starter LHP Julio Urías exited early after just 61 pitches, but only because of a strict pitch count as the 22-year-old has been working out of the bullpen recently. Though rookie Casey Sadler quickly surrendered Desmond’s extra base hit, it would be the only form of offense for the Rockies over the next five innings.

Unfortunately, Freeland struggled to quiet the opposing hitters once again. A walk to Pollock would eventually bring up Turner and his .349 career batting average against the Rockies, tied for fifth highest all-time against the franchise. By this point, Freeland threw 78 pitches, walking three and not striking out a single batter.

Chad Bettis came out of the bullpen, but the result was less than desirable: a two-run home run for Turner that traveled 393 ft. It put the game out of reach at 9-3 and squashed any delusions of grandeur about the Rockies winning the NL West in the greatest comeback in the history of the major leagues.

Bryan Shaw pitched the final two innings for Colorado and, excluding a walk, he was downright perfect, striking out six hitters, including the top of the Dodgers order. It was a career-high for Shaw and a franchise record, becoming the first reliever in team history to do so in the minimum two innings.

Colorado attempted to make it interesting with a two-out rally in the ninth, even going so far as stringing three consecutive hits and forcing Los Angeles to warm up their closer, Kenley Jansen. Ultimately, the one run in the final frame did little as the 9-4 loss moved the Rockies 19.5 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West.