The Colorado Rockies bounced back and won 3-2 on Tuesday night to split their two-game road series against the Los Angeles Angels.
Kyle Freeland solid again
Another night, another stellar start from Freeland. Given the way the Angels erupted on offense on Monday night, it was no small feat that Freeland came out and stifled them on Tuesday. He went six innings, allowing just one run and striking out six batters. That lowered his season ERA to 2.90, which is a good place to remind you that we might be watching the best season by a Rockies starter ever.
CarGo home run
It helped that the Rockies got an early boost in this game after such a gut-punch loss last night. Carlos González delivered a two-run home run on a hanging off-speed pitch in the first inning to put the Rockies ahead 2-0.
That’s a good place to remind you how steady CarGo has been this year; he is slashing .294/.347/.488, good for a 110 OPS+. We were all happy for his return in 2018 for sentimental reasons, but I highly doubt anybody saw this production coming after his mostly rough 2017. That’s a welcome sight any night, but especially for the Rockies to get a big win after a tough loss.
Trevor Story manufactured a run
And it ended up being the winning run. Story singled to start the seventh inning, stole second, moved up on a fly ball to left field, and scored on a sacrifice fly from Ian Desmond. That made the score 3-1 at the time, and since the Rockies ended up winning 3-2, I think that means Story had a 1.0 WAR night (#thatsnothowWARworks).
The bullpen holds!
After the Adam Ottavino and Seunghwan Oh misadventures of Monday night, Bud Black turned to Scott Oberg for two innings of setup work. Because sure. A wild pitch set up a run in the eighth, but Oberg ultimately made the lead hold up.
Wade Davis got the save, with two key moments: a nasty 3-1 cut fastball that Shohei Ohtani swung over the top of en route to a strikeout, and the throw Chris Iannetta made on the dropped third strike to record that out. Davis ended up striking out the side for his 36th save of the season.
Looking ahead
The Rockies are off on Wednesday and then start a four-game series in San Diego on Thursday night.