The Colorado Rockies (38-41) were defeated 1-0 by the San Francisco Giants (41-39), despite a brilliant performance from starting pitcher Kyle Freeland Wednesday night. The Rockies second-year starter tossed seven shutout innings, recording four strikeouts and one walk, but it was not enough, as the Giants were able to win with a walk-off home run from Brandon Crawford in the bottom off the ninth inning.
The loss to the Giants is the Rockies’ ninth consecutive defeat against NL West opponents, a trend that they are well aware of and know needs to change if they are going to contend for the playoffs. If there was a bright spot for the Rockies it was Freeland’s dominance on the mound.
After struggling with early exits in ball games in the earlier portion of the season, Freeland has now reached the sixth inning or later in 11 of his last 12 starts. Freeland is 7-3 over that span and has only two losses since June 1.
A large reason Freeland has been able to consistently been able to produce quality outings for the Rockies has been his fearlessness to attack the strike zone and challenge hitters at the plate. That aggressiveness has paid off over the last few months.
That was the certainly the case in Wednesday’s game against the Giants. Freeland threw first-pitch strikes against 13-of-27 hitters and out of his 104 pitches in the ball game, only 37 were outside of the strike zone.
Unfortunately for Freeland, the outing was recorded as a no-decision because he did not receive any run support because Madison Bumgarner was equally dominant for the Giants. Bumgarner also tossed seven shutout innings and only gave up two hits in a no-decision.
After Bumgarner’s brilliant performance, the bullpen was able to pick up the slack and hold out long enough for the Giants to come up with a run. Right-handed relief pitcher Reyes Moronta finished with the victory, as he was the last pitcher to take the hill for San Francisco.
The Rockies and Giants will conclude the three-game series Thursday afternoon at 1:45 p.m. MT. Jon Gray will make the start for the Rockies.