Freeland deals with 'rush of emotion' in possible final home start at Coors

DENVER – Kyle Freeland’s tears flowed before he stepped into Coors Field, hours before his final home start for the Rockies under his current contract went awry during a 7-2 loss to the Diamondbacks on Tuesday night.

“I didn’t know when it was going to hit me,” said Freeland, a Denver native who was the Rockies’ first-round MLB Draft pick in 2014 and has spent his entire 10-season career with the club. “And sure enough, when I parked my car in the players lot today, I had a rush of emotion hit me, realizing this might be the last time I’m walking into the stadium for a start.

“Making sure I said hi to the people I needed to say hi to walking down the halls, making sure I’m walking down the track and taking in Coors Field for what it is … all the great times I’ve had here with my teammates. It was an emotional day, and I made sure to soak in every single minute of it.”

Freeland, who began his career with a win over the Dodgers in the 2017 home opener, helped the team to the postseason in 2017 and 2018. He took a no-hit bid into the ninth as a rookie and finished fourth in Cy Young Award voting in '18. He pitched well enough to earn a five-year, $64.5 million contract, earned the Rockies’ Roberto Clemente Award nomination each of the last five years, and was asked by manager Warren Schaeffer to be a leader on a rebuilding team.

If this is it at home, he’ll leave as the Rockies’ career home leader in starts (129), innings pitched (690) and strikeouts (540), and second in wins (40).

But a happy ending was not to be. Freeland was done after three innings, nine hits and five runs.

Tears sprung again as he left the game. TV cameras showed Freeland with his face buried in the shoulder of someone who had been through even more with the Rockies. Rick Mathews became pitching coach at the Rookie level in 1992 – a year before the club took the field – coached in the Minors and Majors, and will retire at year’s end after serving as a special assistant in player development.

“There are not too many guys in their hometown that have had the success that he’s had,” Mathews said. “So he’s a special young man.”

Wherever Freeland lands in free agency, Mathews said, “I pull for him every day.”

Freeland, battling a new round of tears through his postgame interview, listed others, such as assistant bench coach Ron Gideon, who was with him in the Minors and the Majors; home clubhouse manager Mike Pontarelli (who fulfilled Freeland’s request to collect dirt from the field); and Schaeffer – who took over as manager after Bud Black was fired last May.

The loss to the Diamondbacks brought on another layer of cruelty. It made the Rockies the first team to lose 100 games in four straight seasons since the 1962-65 Mets – in their first four years of existence. It makes sense for Freeland to look to sign elsewhere and test his ability outside of baseball’s toughest pitching environment. But he still believes in Schaeffer and the Rockies.

“They’ve got the right guy at the helm with [Schaeffer],” Freeland said. “What they’ve done this past offseason, with the turnover in our front office and taking this organization in a little bit of new direction – ownership as well – everything that we’re doing inside this clubhouse, coaches, players, front office, staff, have been doing an incredible job making sure that this team and this [organization] is heading in the direction of winning.”

Schaeffer, who said he realizes the losing is heavy but progress is happening, stepped away from the loss to give Freeland his due.

“I just want to show appreciation for Kyle Freeland, this being his possible last home start,” Schaeffer said. “This guy's meant so much to our organization over the years, and the ultimate pro. You hate to have it end like that, but the things that he's done for this community and our baseball team over the years and the winning years are priceless. And I just want to thank him publicly for that.”

About an hour after the final pitch, Freeland re-entered the field. He hadn’t removed his Rockies baselayer shirt. With one more scheduled start this year – on the road in the season finale Sunday against the White Sox – Freeland began to move past the heaviest of the emotions.

He was finally smiling.