DENVER -- Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland was nearing his pitch count after a short Spring Training. He wasn’t going to throw more than 75 or so, anyhow.

But fatigue is a funny thing. When you’re rolling along and making pitches, it may be present but it doesn’t weigh as heavy. But miss on a big one that is the difference between walking off the mound with a lead and not, and it hits like a two-run single -- and a subsequent double and a walk.

With two on and two out in the fourth inning of the 5-3 Opening Day loss to the Dodgers at Coors Field, Freeland had Gavin Lux at 0-2. After missing twice, the sinker Freeland had employed all day missed a little higher than he wanted. The single tied the game.

And pretty much ruined his day.

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“I had a lot of momentum right there,” Freeland said. “Nobody wants to go from an 0-2 count, two outs, runners on and you can get out of a jam to giving up two runs and the ballgame’s tied. It’s a momentum killer.

“It’s getting back to yourself, finding the rhythm again and executing pitches.”

Freeland’s day further unraveled with Mookie Betts’ double that gave the Dodgers the lead, and a walk to Freddie Freeman. Ball four was his 74th and final pitch.

“Two outs, two on and he produced a ground ball,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “The ball went in the right spot. It wasn’t hard hit. But that’s baseball.”

A pitcher fully built up may find the right pitch to hold the damage. But with three starts in a shortened Spring Training, a gut punch like Lux’s single was the knockout blow.

“Kyle might have been hitting the wall there, and the Freeman walk did it,” Black said.

Freeland was charged with five runs because Tyler Kinley could not limit the damage. But Freeland -- who beat the Dodgers in the 2017 home opener that was his Major League debut, and beat the Marlins on the road in the 2019 season opener -- had a heck of a day going before the fourth. He finished with six strikeouts, the only hit before the fourth being Max Muncy’s second-inning leadoff single.

“Everything was working really well for me today,” Freeland said. “The curveball, I was able to execute down in the zone for a strike when I needed it, and I was able to play that off my fastball really well.”

Opening Day has much pomp and much focus, but no amount of excitement can make up for being about two starts shy of reaching the 90-100 pitch range to start a season. In Freeland’s last Spring Training start, he gave up no earned runs in 5 1/3 innings against the Mariners. But that still isn’t the same as handling the tough Dodgers lineup with a pitch limit.

Interestingly, the Dodgers’ Walker Buehler had the same limit and was coming off a poor final spring start. But Buehler made the key pitch -- on a strikeout of C.J. Cron with two on to end the fifth. Freeland didn’t.

But Freeland -- like other pitchers around the game experiencing the same -- simply has to be patient with himself.

“Every game counts,” Freeland said. “With a pitch count, you’ve still got to grind and execute the pitches that you need. There’s also an effect of Coors Field, high altitude. Walker did a good job settling in after those first couple innings. For myself, I got a little bit of wind taken out of my sails in that fourth.”