Kyle Freeland upstaged ace Dylan Cease and the Rockies pocketed one of their most satisfying wins of the season on Wednesday afternoon.
Freeland pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings and Alan Trejo, Yonathan Daza and C.J. Cron delivered in the clutch as the Rockies blanked the White Sox 3-0 at Guaranteed Rate Field.
“Our offense had some clutch hits today against (Cease) and he, obviously, is an upper-echelon pitcher, for sure,” Freeland told AT&T SportsNet. “For us to be able to get three runs off him and then have me and ‘Serve’ (catcher Brian Serven) go out and do our thing and keep their powerhouse offense at bay, it was great to see.”
The Rockies entered the game having lost 12 of their last 15 on the road, averaging 2.3 runs per game and hitting .201. But Freeland’s excellent start took some of the pressure off.
Freeland did what Freeland does when he’s on his game. He mixed in all of his pitches, scattered seven hits and struck out five. He did walk three, but the lefty induced six groundball outs, and cut short potential Chicago rallies with double plays in the first and second innings.
Freeland got a big assist from Daza in the third inning when Daza made a terrific catch against the left-field wall on Seby Zavala’s line drive. Daza’s catch robbed Zavala of an extra-base hit and prevented two runs from scoring.
Freeland has given up two or fewer runs in each of his last four starts, going 2-1 with a 1.54 ERA.
“I liked it all today and Kyle was really good from the get-go,” manager Bud Black said. “If you break it all down, I thought the fastball played as well today as any time all year.”
Freeland concurred: “We got ahead with the fastball early, throughout the whole game, using both sides of the plate, with a two-seam and four-seam (fastball). We kept them off-balance and that allowed me to use the rest of my arsenal.”
Freeland departed in the seventh inning, leaving his team in a bit of a precarious situation with runners at first and second and Yoan Moncada coming to the plate representing the tying run. But right-hander Carlos Estevez came in to strike out Moncada and then pitched a scoreless eighth.
Closer Daniel Bard struck out the side in the ninth to notch his 30th save in 33 chances. Bard’s ERA is down to 2.03.
Cease, a leading candidate for the American League Cy Young Award, entered the afternoon with a 10-4 record and 1.17 ERA over his last 19 starts. His 1.17 ERA was the lowest in White Sox history (since 1913) over any 19-start stretch in the same season.
But in five innings, the Rockies scored all three of their runs against him and forced the right-hander to throw 107 pitches. Cease has made 29 starts this season and Wednesday marked just the sixth time that he surrendered three or more runs.
It was a costly loss for Chicago. It now trails Cleveland by four games in the race for the AL Central title.
Cease used his high fastball and wicked slider to strike out eight, and the Rockies whiffed 15 times total, including four Ks by Charlie Blackmon. But Colorado hitters came through when they needed to.
Rookie Michael Toglia, starting in right field, led off the second with a walk and scored on Trejo’s double to left. Daza’s two-out, RBI single off Cease scored Trejo to make it 2-0.
“We wanted to make (Cease) throw strikes,” Trejo told AT&T SportsNet. “I got into a 3-2 count, and he had already had a couple of 3-2 counts. I wasn’t expecting a slider but I was ready for it. I put a good swing on it and things worked out.”
Ryan McMahon ripped a ground-rule double off Cease to lead off the fifth and scored on Cron’s single to give the Rockies a 3-0 lead.
The Rockies are off Thursday before opening a three-game series against the Cubs beginning Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field.
On Deck
The Rockies are off on Thursday
Trending: Yonathan Daza went 2-for-4 with an RBI Wednesday and is hitting 12-for-27 (.444) with eight runs, three doubles, one home run and six RBIs in seven games since coming off the injured list on Sept. 6.
At issue: Charlie Blackmon struck out four times Wednesday after going 2-for-20 with five strikeouts on the recent homestand.
Pitching probables:
Thursday: Off day
Friday: Rockies RHP German Marquez (8-10, 5.25 ERA) at Cubs RHP Marcus Stroman (3-7, 3.91), 12:20 p.m. ATTRM
Saturday: Rockies RHP Jose Urena (3-6, 5.81) at Cubs RHP Wade Miley (1-0, 2.89), 12:20 p.m., ATTRM
Sunday: Rockies RHP Ryan Feltner (2-8, 6.12) at Cubs RHP Javier Assad (1-1, 2.53), 12:20 p.m., ATTRM
