The Colorado Rockies needed to win a winnable game. They made it harder than it needed to be, but they still got there.
The Rockies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3 on Friday night at Coors Field, improving to 29-47 while Pittsburgh fell to 38-38. Kyle Freeland gave Colorado seven brilliant innings, reached 1,000 career strikeouts, and then watched the game nearly slip away in the eighth. The Rockies answered with two outs in the bottom half, and Antonio Senzatela escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam
in the top of the ninth.
Senzatela got the win, improving to 7-0 with a 2.23 ERA.
Mason Montgomery took the loss for Pittsburgh, falling to 2-2 with a 4.71 ERA.
Freeland gives the Rockies a winnable game
Freeland was brilliant before the eighth changed the final line. He finished with 7.1 innings, four hits, two earned runs, no walks and eight strikeouts, with his ERA moving to 7.36. The two runs came after Freeland had worked seven scoreless innings, retired 15 straight Pirates and reached 1,000 career strikeouts.
Freeland threw 81 pitches, 57 for strikes, and leaned on his knuckle curve more than any other pitch. He threw it 26 times, ahead of his four-seam fastball at 25 and his cutter at 17. The knuckle curve produced three strikeouts, including the milestone pitch to Marcell Ozuna in the seventh.
Freeland’s first real test came in the second, when Brandon Lowe doubled sharply to right field. The ball left the bat at 107.5 mph and traveled 389 feet, the hardest contact against Freeland until the eighth. It was loud, but it stayed isolated. Freeland answered by striking out Endy Rodríguez on a foul tip and getting Esmerlyn Valdez to fly out to center field.
Jared Triolo singled and stole second in the third, but Freeland stranded him when Nick Gonzales flew out to Cole Carrigg. From there, Freeland controlled the middle of the game. He retired 15 straight from Triolo’s single through the end of the seventh, needed just 63 pitches to get through six innings, and came back out for the seventh still in control.
After Ryan O’Hearn flew out to Jake McCarthy in foul territory, Freeland ran the count full against Ozuna before finishing him with an 84.4 mph knuckle curve for career strikeout No. 1,000.
No. 1,001 came much faster. After a brief acknowledgment from the crowd, Freeland struck out Lowe on three pitches, going four-seamer, knuckle curve and cutter to close seven scoreless innings.
Rockies do enough against Chandler
The Rockies applied pressure, but Bubba Chandler never unraveled. He finished with six innings, six hits, two runs, two walks, one strikeout and two hit batters on 74 pitches. His ERA moved to 4.62.
Chandler leaned on premium velocity, throwing 35 four-seam fastballs that averaged 99 mph and 15 sinkers that averaged 98.3 mph. His hardest pitch was a 100.6 mph fastball, which came on his only strikeout of the night. Sterlin Thompson challenged the previous strike call through ABS, had it confirmed, then chased the next pitch above the zone.
Most of Chandler’s night did not look like that. The Rockies put 21 balls in play against him and did not strike out until Thompson’s plate appearance in the sixth. They did not turn that into a big offensive night, but they kept Chandler’s velocity from taking over the game.
Colorado’s first run came in the third. Thompson was hit by a pitch to open the inning, and Ezequiel Tovar followed with a bunt single in front of Rodríguez. Kyle Karros then grounded to Triolo, who cut down Thompson at third, but Tovar moved to second and Karros reached first.
After McCarthy lined out, Willi Castro fell behind 0-2, fouled off a 99.6 mph fastball, then stayed on an 87.7 mph curveball and lined it 104.2 mph to right field.
Tovar scored from second, Karros moved to third, and the Rockies led 1-0.
TJ Rumfield added the second run in the fourth, driving his 11th home run of the season to right field. The 427-foot solo shot left the bat at 101.3 mph and pushed the lead to 2-0. Rumfield had already singled in the second, but Tyler Freeman erased that inning with a double play.
The Rockies had chances to do more. Tovar opened the fifth with his second hit, but Karros grounded into Colorado’s second double play. McCarthy followed with his 12th double, Castro walked, and Hunter Goodman hit a 105.7 mph line drive to center field, but Billy Cook was there to end the inning.
Chandler gave Colorado another opening in the sixth when he hit Freeman, Freeman’s 11th hit-by-pitch of the season, and walked Carrigg. Thompson’s strikeout and Tovar’s groundout ended that chance.
Yohan Ramírez replaced Chandler to start the bottom of the seventh and retired Karros, McCarthy and Castro in order.
The eighth gets away, then Fulford answers
The eighth changed the game.
Rodríguez grounded out to open the inning, but Valdez followed with a double, a 110.7 mph line drive to center off a 91.5 mph four-seam fastball. Triolo then doubled to right, scoring Valdez and cutting the Rockies’ lead to 2-1. That ended Freeland’s night.
Jaden Hill entered with Triolo at second and Bryan Reynolds pinch-hitting for Cook. Hill threw six sinkers in a 10-pitch appearance, but Reynolds singled through the middle to score Triolo and tie the game at 2-2.
The Rockies briefly slowed the inning when Jake Mangum, running for Reynolds, was thrown out trying to steal second after Colorado challenged the initial safe call, with Goodman’s throw and Tovar’s tag giving them the second out.
Hill still had to finish the inning. He hit Spencer Horwitz with a pitch, and Gonzales followed with a triple to right field that scored Horwitz and gave the Pirates a 3-2 lead. Hill got O’Hearn to fly out to center, but the inning had flipped.
Hill’s line was 0.2 innings, two hits, one earned run, no walks and no strikeouts, with his ERA moving to 5.19. The inherited runner charged to Freeland scored, making Freeland’s final line look less clean than the first seven innings felt.
Colorado answered with two outs in the bottom half.
Goodman flew out against Ramírez to open the inning, and Mason Montgomery replaced Ramírez after an injury delay. Rumfield grounded out softly, leaving the Rockies one out from taking a deficit into the ninth.
Freeman kept the inning alive with a single to right, and Carrigg followed with a single to left. Braxton Fulford then pinch-hit for Thompson and worked the count in his favor. After seeing three fastballs and a curveball, Fulford got a 97.5 mph fastball from Montgomery and lined it to center field. The ball left the bat at 109.5 mph and traveled 302 feet, scoring Freeman and Carrigg for a 4-3 Rockies lead.
Tovar struck out to end the inning, but Fulford’s third double of the season gave Colorado the lead back.
Senzatela survives the ninth
Senzatela came on for the ninth with a one-run lead and immediately had to work through traffic.
Ozuna opened the inning with a single to right, and Henry Davis entered as a pinch-runner. Lowe then reached on a fielder’s choice when Tovar could not handle a sharp grounder, with the error moving Davis to third. Senzatela walked Rodríguez, loading the bases with nobody out.
Senzatela got the first out himself, striking out Tyler Callihan with a 96.7 mph four-seam fastball and keeping the tying run at third.
Then the Rockies got the ground ball they needed. Triolo hit it to Tovar, who flipped to Castro at second. Castro stayed on the bag, pivoted and threw to first, and Rumfield secured the final out. The play went to review, but the call was upheld.
The Rockies had turned a bases-loaded, no-out jam into a game-ending double play. It was not clean, but it was enough.
Final notes
The Rockies finished with four runs, nine hits and one error. The Pirates had three runs, seven hits and no errors.
Colorado struck out only twice as a team, a notable number against Chandler’s velocity-heavy mix. The Rockies went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and had two two-out RBI, one from Castro in the third and two from Fulford in the eighth. They left seven runners on base.
They found a way to win the winnable game.
Up next
The Rockies continue the series against the Pirates on Saturday night at Coors Field, with first pitch set for 7:10 p.m. MDT.
It will be a tough follow-up assignment for Colorado. Pittsburgh is scheduled to start Paul Skenes, who enters at 6-6 with a 2.85 ERA and 99 strikeouts. The Rockies will counter with Tomoyuki Sugano, who is 7-4 with a 4.54 ERA and 41 strikeouts.
After finding a way through Friday’s late-game mess, the Rockies get one of the league’s toughest arms next.
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