For the second day in a row, there was reason to celebrate for the Colorado Rockies. Apart from it being the home opener, a joyous day every year, Denver-native Kyle Freeland made his MLB debut becoming the first pitcher since 1966 to make his debut in an opener for the team from his home state. And this time, the starter got the win, and the Rockies pulled out a very tight 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
As expected, Freeland looked a bit nervous in the first inning. He got off to a great start by striking out Logan Forsythe and getting a quick groundout to follow. But Justin Turner hit a single up the middle and Freeland couldn’t quite find the corners for a bit, walking the next two batters to load the bases right away.
Like Antonio Senzatela the day before in his debut, though, Freeland worked out of the jam and seemed to settle down quite a bit thereafter. He wouldn’t walk another batter and allowed just one run while striking out six over six innings.
The Rockies got a run in the first but very easily could have had more. After Charlie Blackmon was gifted first base on a dropped third strike, he was thrown out trying to steal, negating the gift altogether. Naturally, the Rockies followed all that with three straight hits; singles from DJ LeMahieu and Carlos Gonzalez and finally the RBI double from Nolan Arenado. Arenado, if you haven’t heard, is quite clutch. All three of his RBI so far this young season have either tied the game or been the go-ahead run.
The home team booted another opportunity given to them by the Dodgers in the second when Stephen Cardullo, who reached via error and moved to third on another one, was thrown out at home on a Blackmon groundball as part of an inning-ending double play.
The Dodgers tied the game in the fourth by implementing a bit of small ball, which is interesting for a veteran team — the favorites in the NL West — facing a rookie in his debut. Scott Van Slyke lead-off the inning off with a double and Yasmani Grandal was asked to lay down the bunt to move him to third. He did so successfully and it paid off when Enrique Hernandez grounded out to short, scoring the tying run on a fielder’s choice.
But the Rockies took the lead back, never to relinquish it, on a home run from backup catcher Dustin Garneau who was also phenomenal behind the plate for his two debuting rookies the last two games.
There was some typical highlight defense from Arenado but beyond the feel-good story for young Freeland, the story of today is that the Rockies came into a game starting two bench players, having a light bullpen — with Greg Holland, Adam Ottavino, and Mike Dunn all unavailable — and committing some pretty dreadful mistakes on the base paths but still managed to beat a very good team.
Scott Oberg and Jake McGee filled in nicely at the back end of the bullpen, the latter striking out the side to secure the win.
Of course it was Kyle Freeland day, but it was also a great full-team, deep bench win for the Colorado Rockies against a divisional opponent.
