Freeland's mistake pitch a 'big no-no' in otherwise strong 9-K start

SAN FRANCISCO -- Despite missing a chance to move up the Rockies’ career charts for pitching wins, left-hander Kyle Freeland came out of Saturday’s start against the Giants feeling pretty good about his afternoon.

For good reason, too.

Outside of a knuckle curve that Freeland hung over the plate to the red-hot Casey Schmitt that wound up in the Oracle Park bleachers for a three-run homer, it was indeed a mostly positive and encouraging start for Colorado’s 33-year-old pitcher in the club’s 4-2 loss.

“I thought it was a great outing for [Freeland],” manager Warren Schaeffer said. “You can tell physically when he’s ready to go. Today, he was on point and he did everything he could to help us win.”

Freeland did just that.

Freeland took a perfect game into the fourth inning, allowed a modest six hits in six innings, didn’t walk a batter for the seventh time in 17 starts this season and logged a season-high nine strikeouts.

Freeland was touched for a run in the fifth before the game-changing sixth.

After giving up back-to-back singles to begin the inning, Freeland threw a 1-1 pitch that he hoped would break down out of the zone. Instead, it hung over the middle of the plate and Schmitt crushed it for his 19th home run this season.

“He’s got a lot of pop and he can hit for average as well,” Freeland said. “He’s a guy that you have to be aware of in the lineup. He’s one of those guys in that lineup where leaving mistakes in a big part of the zone is a big no-no.”

Other than that, there wasn’t much for Freeland to feel bad about.

After the break, he’ll get another chance at chasing his 68th career victory for the Rockies, which would tie him with Germán Márquez for third in franchise history behind Jorge De La Rosa (86) and Aaron Cook (72).

Until then, Freeland is fine trying to follow up what he did against the Giants.

“I think that’s fair to say,” Freeland said, “When you have bad ones, it’s easier to kind of flush it, because you know that you didn’t have your stuff that day. Days like today ... it ended up being one mistake that I hung in the middle of the plate to their best hitter this season.

“There’s a lot of positives to take away from this start. It was one mistake that ended up being the difference in the game. That’s baseball. That’s a mistake that I have to live with. I didn’t execute the pitch how I wanted.”

Schaeffer was equally pleased with how well Freeland pitched on a day when the Rockies managed only six hits and two runs.

“Kyle was excellent today,” Schaeffer said. “He was efficient. He attacked the strike zone. His fastball was really good. His changeup was really good. He just felt like he was in command of the game.

“Other than one swing from Schmitt, it was a really good outing for him.”