Kyle Freeland blacked out on Sunday and saved his job in the process

DENVER – Ballsy.

Kyle Freeland pitched on sheer determination in front of 36,000 of his own, saving his job, salvaging a series while he pieced together a magical afternoon.

The 24-year-old left-hander was coming off the three worst outings of his rookie year and with doubt about his longevity in the Colorado Rockies rotation for the remainder of the season. He silenced everyone and electrified fans and players alike.

“When I walked out of the dugout (for the ninth inning) and the crowd gave that roar, I blacked out,” Freeland tried to recall. “It was a ton of fun to battle out there.”

Freeland took the mound in the ninth inning with 116 pitches thrown, only three base runners allowed and having more hits as a batter (one) than he allowed as a pitcher (zero).

He struck out White Sox centerfielder Adam Engel on the fifth pitch of his fourth at-bat. A 91 mph fastball above the zone saw Engel flail and sent Coors Field into a frenzy.

Freeland had allowed 25 hits and 14 earned runs in his last 17.1 innings as he stepped on the mound at 1:10, 126 pitches and 189 minutes later just after he sent Engel packing he allowed his lone hit and it knocked him from the game as the Rockies shutout the White Sox 10-0.

Freeland set down the first 11 Chicago batters straight and carried the longest no-hit bid in Coors Field history for a Rockie at eight-and-a-third pitched.

“It was incredible,” he said. “The fans were great, our bats got going immediately. Those two runs in the second and they didn’t stop it was a good team win to go into the break.”

After getting the first two batters on five pitches Jose Abreu stepped in. Abreu is on pace to be on a mighty fine list with Albert Pujols, Joe DiMaggio among other greats to have 100 RBI in their first four seasons. Abreu made Freeland work, throwing 10 pitches in the at-bat, yet he retired the South Side’s slugger.

It was on.

“They can hit and we saw that last night, they have guys that swing it well and he was fouling them off and we battled,” said battle winner Freeland.

Back at it in the second, he got Todd Frazier on a nasty left on right slider on the inner part of the dish. Another out to the right side and then Tim Anderson went down swinging.

“I loved how loose he was,” catcher Ryan Hanigan said. “He was really free and not aiming it. He knew what he had.”

Gerardo Parra doubled in the second after a leadoff walk and a Carlos Gonzalez single gave the Rockies a two-run lead.

The third is when it got really real. Freeland struck out the side starting with an unreal change-up on the outer-half to get Yomer Sanchez flailing. Omar Narvaez then Carlos Rodon looked silly and he was onto the fourth.

“He had great fastball command on both sides and to the corners and nothing was fat,” catcher of each of Homer Bailey‘s no-hitters Hanigan said. “The game went on and he was on the corner and then getting guys to chase. It was tough for hitters to see they had very little time to react and we were aggressive with the fastball.”

The fourth is when Freeland allowed his first baserunner and it was because Abreu convinced home plate ump Greg Gibson that pitch hit him. Abreu at first base did not hinder Freeland and he was on to to the fifth.

“We thought we had it but it was it is,” Freeland said of Gibson. “It goes the the other way sometimes too.”

Three ground balls in the fifth and then it was the sixth.

“Around the fifth inning I really settled into a groove, I was pitching well, the team was playing well and I was just pitching to contact,” he said.

In both the sixth and seventh Freeland faced some major adversity. Walking the leadoff man in the sixth Freeland worked around some rough calls from Gibson behind the plate but mattered on.

In seventh his pitched count jumped. Another leadoff walk, this time after a half hour off the rubber due to a five-run Rockies rally, and he was in trouble. He then walked the second batter and he had two on no out but thanks to the offensive rally a newly minted seven-run lead. He got All-Star Avail Garcia to ground into a pair and then retired Tim Anderson on a can of corn.

The seventh was rather remarkable because Freeland had gone over a half hour between throwing a pitch due to the Rockies long rally. Yet he got back into the groove after working himself into the jam and he let out a huge roar as he skipped over the first base line and back to the dugout, but he was up to 99 pitches and the Rockies bullpen stirred.

“Kyle pitches with a lot of emotion and you don’t see that sometimes,” Bud Black said. “Kyle has a fire within him and that’s great. We love it”

The Rockies offense rallied for three more in the seventh sending eight to the plate after batting around in the prior inning. This time Freeland went 25 minutes between stints on the mound.

“I might be getting too much rest here but this is kinda nice,” Freeland recalled what he was thinking while sitting lonely in the dugout. “At that point, I was focusing on going inning to inning.”

Parra started the inning with the cliche no-hitter saving diving catch in left field then Freeland sent the rest of the side packing in the eighth striking out Omar Narvaez and Willy Garcia, and he sent all Rockies fans into ‘get-to-a-tv-mode.’

He was at 116 pitches after eight innings of work and was sent back out for the ninth. Trying to complete just the second no-hitter in Rockies history.

“You gotta love Bud giving him the chance to do it,” the starting catcher said.

He struck out Engel to start the inning.

Next stood Melky Cabrera. He put himself into a 1-2 count.

The fourth pitch he used to back off Cabrera.

The fifth pitch at 2-2 was once more high and tight but Cabrera shot it above Nolan Arenado‘s head and into left field for a single.

“You don’t want to get beat but we had a plan and his pitch count was high so we didn’t have time to mess around,” Hanigan explained. “He was awesome, obviously we’d like to have gotten it done but it was such a positive outing for him and the team going into the break.”

“Tip my cap on him being able to handle that pitch,” Freeland said.

He exited with his entire city cheering him on in person, on TV and elsewhere.

Freeland tipped his cap this time to the fans.

“I thought he pitched inside extremely well both in off the plate and for strikes,” Black said. “His slider/cutter was much better. He’s got good action on his pitches, it’s cutting and diving in the hitting areas and today it was on. There was a lot of conviction with every pitch that he threw. He and Ryan were in sync all game.”

When presented with his biggest challenge in his young career Freeland ascended to another level of grit, one any Coloradan could be proud of.

“All these young guys, group them together, (Antonio) Senzatela, Freeland, (Jeff) Hoffman and (German) Marquez,” Black said. They’re very competitive, their inner constitution, what they’re about. They care about the Rockies and they compete. They were raised well in our organization”

What the Colorado Rockies have is special and today was just another example. Rookie starts with the level of conviction and the constitution they have is rare. It’s the reason why Colorado’s pitching record book has been re-written so many times over the past calendar year.

For Freeland, he saved his job and he already has thrown a no-hitter in a 10-0 win anyway.

“I threw a no-hitter against George Washington in High School,” the Thomas Jefferson graduate said laughing. “We 10-run ruled them so it was only five innings.”