The Colorado Rockies continued their rough start to the season on Monday night with an 8-6 loss to the Atlanta Braves. Kyle Freeland got roughed up a bit early and the offense wasn’t able to complete a comeback to bail him out.
Baseball things happen to Freeland
Kyle Freeland certainly wasn’t as sharp as we’ve come to expect from him. He walked four batters over the course of five innings and allowed seven hits. He was ultimately charged with seven runs.
And yet the early damage was partially just great swings from Atlanta hitters. Freeland located pitches down in the zone only to see them handled by Ronald Acuña Jr. on a two-run home run and by Nick Markakis on a two-run single.
I’m not arguing that this was a good start, especially since it ended with a Dansby Swanson triple and then a run-scoring wild pitch. I’m just noting that it was also about Atlanta doing damage on at least some tough pitches early on.
Rockies can’t quite come back
Faced with a seven-run deficit thanks to those rare struggles from Freeland, the hapless Rockies offense almost came through with a big comeback. They pieced together a rally that included a Mark Reynolds home run and a three-run blast from Trevor Story.
Soak in the beauty of #StoryTime Volume 4, Chapter 4. pic.twitter.com/J3a83z21v2
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) April 9, 2019
Had the Rockies pulled out the win, that would have been a moment. Unfortunately the offense went back into a hole for the rest of the game, squandering opportunities to tie the game and relegating this home run to the many forgotten plays over the course of a baseball season.
Wade Davis might get a save someday
And Scott Oberg might get to do his fine work to set up wins. For now though, we’ll just note that these guys pitched three scoreless innings to keep the Rockies within striking distance late.
Looking forward
The Rockies will try to stop a bad stretch of baseball as they continue this series with the Braves on Tuesday with German Márquez on the mound against Max Fried.