As the Rockies take baby steps toward a youth movement, growing pains are to be expected. But their 11-1 loss to the Padres on Wednesday afternoon at Coors Field was agonizing.
Playing on their home turf, the Rockies managed just four hits against five San Diego pitchers, struck out 15 times and hit 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position. Colorado pitchers served up five home runs.
After the game, starter Kyle Freeland was blunt.
“It’s very frustrating,” said the lefty, who signed a five-year, $64.5 million contract extension in April of last year. “The second year into this contract, it’s definitely not how I pictured things going, for myself or this team. It’s tough.
“We all want to win and we all want to have success and we all want to be in the playoffs playing meaningful baseball. Right now, it seems like every time you look down that tunnel, looking for that light, it just keeps getting further and further away.”
Colorado (42-66 overall, 25-30 at Coors Field) is playing for the future, but the avalanche of losses, exacerbated by injuries to pitchers, still stings.
Freeland continues to be haunted by a shocking lack of offensive support. The 30-year-old lefty wasn’t great Wednesday, giving up three homers in six innings, but his lack of run support has been maddening. This season, he’s averaged just 2.95 runs of support per start, the lowest in the majors. Over his last 12 starts, he’s 0-8 with a 2.04 run-support average.
Freeland, being the team leader that he is, does not talk about the lack of offense behind him, but manager Bud Black said he believes that Freeland has handled the situation well.
Asked if the lack of support has negatively affected Freeland, Black replied, “I don’t think so. It’s there. It’s a real thing and you guys write about it and he’s aware of what’s going on.
“But ultimately, all starting pitchers have to put that aside. They know what their responsibility is, and that is to keep their team in the game. And he did that today — four runs in six innings. A lot of times that will give your team a victory. Today it didn’t.”
All of that is not to say that Freeland has been sharp over his last dozen games. Over those 12 starts, he has a 6.28 ERA with 12 homers given up.
On Wednesday, he was charged with four runs on seven hits, with six strikeouts and one walk over six innings. The good news was that his fastball velocity averaged 89.9 mph and peaked at 92.5 mph, an increase from the 88.3 mph fastball he had been throwing.
“It was nice to see the velo back up to where I want it to be,” Freeland said. “I thought I had a good shape to my pitches.”
But the three home-run pitches, all mislocated, hurt him.
The game began in ominous fashion for Colorado when Ha-Seong Kim led off with a 425-foot homer to left on a fastball Freeland threw up in the zone. The Padres made it 3-0 in the third on Juan Soto’s 449-foot, two-run blast into the second deck in right field. Soto is a good high-ball hitter and he jumped on Freeland’s first pitch, a 90.4 mph fastball that was well out of the strike zone.
Soto hit his third home run in two days and has launched eight homers and 23 RBIs in 19 games since the All-Star break. Gary Sanchez’s two-out solo homer put San Diego ahead, 4-1, in the sixth.
San Diego’s seven-run ninth inning featured another tough outing for Daniel Bard, who continues to struggle with wildness and lack of command within the zone. Bard, last year’s closer, gave up two home runs — a leadoff solo blast to left-center by Sanchez, and a 444-footer down the left-field line by Fernando Tatis Jr.
Former starter Connor Seabold also had a tough ninth, giving up three runs on three hits in two-thirds of an inning.
Colorado eked out its lone run in the fourth against lefty Ray Kerr, who relieved starter Nick Martinez. Kerr was wild, issuing free passes to Ezequiel Tovar, Ryan McMahon and Nolan Jones (on a pitch clock violation for ball four).
But the best the Rockies could do was score on Elehuris Montero’s weak groundout to first base.
The Rockies are off on Thursday. They begin a 10-day, 10-game road trip on Friday in St. Louis against the Cardinals.
Pitching probables
Thursday: Off day
Friday: Rockies RHP Chris Flexen (0-5, 8.08 ERA) at Cardinals RHP Adam Wainwright (3-5, 7.18), 6:15 p.m., ATTRM
Saturday: Rockies LHP Ty Blach (1-0. 4.22) at Cardinals LHP Steven Matz (2-7, 4.06), 5:15 p.m, ATTRM
Sunday: Rockies LHP Austin Gomber (8-8, 5.68) at Cardinals RHP Miles Mikolas (6-7, 4.29), 12:15 p.m, ATTRM
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