The Colorado Rockies went scoreless for nearly 18 innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates, but just narrowly avoided their second straight shutout as they still lost the game and the series 5-1 on Saturday. They have fallen to 37-93 on the year with this loss.
Free-Land ho
There were concerns coming into the game about just how long Kyle Freeland would be able to give the Rockies. A lingering blister issue cut his last start short, but despite some visible discomfort when throwing some breaking pitches later in his outing,
he was able to give the Rockies five innings. He tallied six strikeouts against the Pirates offense, but they managed five runs on seven hits against him, including a pair of two-run home runs.
He threw 94 pitches, with 56 going for strikes. Having just gone five innings, it keeps the Rockies firmly in last place in terms of starts of six or more innings with 32.
Cannonball blasts
Freeland’s outing may not look great on the box score, but it’s mainly because of two bad pitches. The Pirates did their damage on the backs of two two-run homers early on against the veteran lefty.
The first came off the bat of Andrew McCutchen, who continues to terrorize Rockies pitching. In a 3-2 count, Freeland left a fastball over the middle of the plate at the knees that Cutch turned on and blasted into left field to give the Pirates the early 2-0 lead in the second inning.
The following inning, Jared Triolo turned on a 1-1 fastball down and sent it to left-center field to make it a 4-0 ball game in favor of the Buccos.
The Pirates continued their extra-base parade from the night before, with Triolo also collecting a triple while Bryan Reynolds added a double, as did Nick Gonzales.
Scurvy in the bats
While the Pirate bats were bringing the power, the Rockies continued to struggle to find their rhythm. Through the first seven innings, they had just three hits, all of them singles. They collected three more in the final two, with two of them going for extra bases.
Ryan Ritter collected a double to help extend his hitting streak to 10 games, but it was Kyle Karros’s two hits and Brenton Doyle’s two hits that highlighted the Rockies’ offense.
With two outs in the top of the ninth, Doyle spoiled the shutout with his 14th home run of the season. However, it was the only notable offensive highlight as the team struck out 13 times against just one walk and went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
Protect the ship
While the offense did struggle, the bullpen once again did its job to straighten the ship, tossing three scoreless innings, although there was a scary moment. Jaden Hill entered the game in the sixth to relieve Freeland, but threw just two pitches after Alexander Canario lined a ball straight back to the mound that hit Hill in the arm, near the elbow.
The defense, on the other hand, had some highlights to help things out as well.
Doyle made a snazzy catch in center field to end the third inning.
Hunter Goodman had a couple of good throws behind the plate to get runners out, including a caught stealing of Isiah Kiner-Falefa that was confirmed via replay review.
Ritter also managed to snag a pop-up on a hit-and-run that turned into an easy double play.
Unfortunately, while defense and quality relief pitching can win games, they remain mere bright spots since the offense failed to provide much help to the team.
Up Next
The Rockies will try to avoid the sweep, but it’s going to be a tough thing to do on Sunday. The game is early, scheduled for 10:05 pm MDT, and the Rockies will have to face off against Paul Skenes in his home ballpark. The Rockies will send out McCade Brown for his big league debut.
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