The Rockies beat Cleveland 8-1 today, giving the team a two-game series sweep. The Rockies outscored the defending American League champions 19-4 over the past two days.
Kyle Freeland was excellent in 61⁄3 innings pitched. He allowed just one run off of six hits while striking out five. He didn’t walk a batter on the day. He lowered his season ERA to 3.34, and he has the fifth best groundball rate in baseball at 57.5 percent. The only run Freeland allowed was a long home run by José Ramírez.
The Rockies didn’t put together any big innings, but they put enough small innings together to make it easy on the pitching staff. The Rockies scored two runs in the third, fourth, and seventh innings, and they scored one each in the sixth and the eighth. Nolan Arenado went 3-for-5 with a double and a triple, while Charlie Blackmon had two hits, including a double. Ian Desmond went 3-for-5 with three singles on the day.
By the time Freeland departed in the seventh inning, the Rockies had a 5-1 lead. Chris Rusin, Jake McGee, and Chad Qualls combined to pitch 22⁄3 scoreless innings to secure the victory.
The Rockies improved their record to 38-23 and are now 15 games above .500 for the first time since September, 2010. Tomorrow, they’ll begin a tough seven-game road trip that will have them play four agains the Cubs and three against the Pirates. The first game agains the Cubs starts at 6:05 MT tomorrow. Tyler Chatwood will start for the Rockies against the Cubs’ Jon Lester.