A hard-hitting catcher and near-perfect pitcher? Call that battery power. Kyle Freeland and Hunter Goodman showed out on Friday en route to one of the most dazzling performances by a Rockies starter in years as they put a small dent in San Diego’s playoff hopes.
Good as gone
How about Hunter Goodman, huh? The first-time All-Star has arguably been Colorado’s MVP this season and hasn’t slowed down since the early days of April. He continued his torrid offensive work in the bottom of the third when, facing a 1-1
count, he opened the scoring by smashing Nick Pivetta’s fastball out and over the right center field wall for his 28th round-tripper.
This home run was special, though. That’s because that long ball tied Goodman with Wilin Rosario for the most home runs by a Rockies catcher in a season. What’s been a phenomenal season for the rising star backstop has officially become one for the history books.
We’ll take it!
Colorado managed to double its lead in the bottom of the fifth – though it wasn’t exactly pretty.
With two outs, Mickey Moniak singled and moved to third on Hunter Goodman’s subsequent base hit. With runners at the corners, Jordan Beck grounded up the middle for what would have been an RBI single if not for the quick glovework of Jose Iglesias, who flipped the ball backwards to second base for the force out.
Except – not quite! The toss pulled second baseman Jake Cronenworth off the bag just enough for Goodman to slide in, scoring the run and doubling Colorado’s lead. Like I said, not exactly pretty, but a run is a run, and the Rockies will happily take it.
Hunting history
Goodman wasn’t done just yet. In the bottom of the seventh, he strode to the plate as Mickey Moniak stood at first base. Facing a two-out scenario, Goodman would likely need to go for extra bases if he was to bring Mickey home.
Well, that’s just old hat for Goody, who flared a ball out to right field, just barely out of reach of a sliding Fernando Tatís Jr. for a double. His third hit allowed Moniak to wheel around the bases and score Colorado’s third run of the ballgame. That knock put Goodman in sole possession of the most hits in a season for a Rockies signal-caller… and that’s just awesome.
With a solid lead, it was now all about the pitching.
That’s my ace
Kyle Freeland has had a weird last few days. He was made to depart his last start prematurely after a kerfuffle with the Giants and was thusly able to take the mound tonight on just three days’ rest (which, for you trivia heads, has happened just once before in Rockies history, back when Jason Jennings did so in 2003). After such an intense emotional outburst, how would K-Free fare on Friday?
As it turns out, spectacularly. Freeland absolutely dealt, mixing his pitches and, in particular, utilizing his curveball with masterful effectiveness. The local lefty allowed no base runners through the first four innings, finally ceding a one-out double to Ramón Laureano in the top of the fifth. Even then, Freeland simply buckled down and coaxed a groundout of Jackson Merrill and strikeout of Jose Iglesias to shut the Padres down.
The defense helped through out his start, like Kyle Karros’s fantastic snag on an Elías Díaz line drive in the sixth –
or Warming Bernabel’s grab in the netting –
– but there’s no question that tonight was all about Freeland.
A career-high 10 strikeouts, just two hits allowed, no walks, eight shutout frames – there’s reason to call this one of the best starts in recent Colorado baseball history. How recent? Well, Kyle was the first Rockies hurler to record 10 K’s in… go on, guess… 293 games(!!!). Yowza.
Freeland set up closer Victor Vodnik for the ninth inning. Vodnik allowed the first two runners to reach, but retired the next three batters to secure the feel-good shutout victory for the Rockies.
Up Next
McCade Brown (0-1, 8.22 ERA) will do his best to pick up where Freeland left off when he gets the ball in game two of this series with San Diego. Randy Vásquez (3-6, 3.96 ERA) gets the ball for the Padres as they look to avoid a six-game skid.
That game begins at 6:10pm MDT. See you then!
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