ST. PETERSBURG -- Kyle Freeland toted a nine-game win streak to the mound on Tuesday night. He departed with two outs in the fifth inning, having tied a career high with 10 strikeouts but lacking the offense behind him to claim win No. 10 during the Rockies’ 4-0 loss to the Rays at Tropicana Field.
“I felt more a level of frustration [than pride for grinding through],” Freeland said. “I didn’t set a good tone in the first inning, and it kind of deflates your offense. Especially when they’ve been struggling the past few games, it doesn’t help them at all, and that’s not what I want to do.”
Several events during Freeland’s 36-pitch first inning were certainly not in the plan, including a pair of walks and a wild pitch. Then, Nolan Arenado fielded a bases-loaded grounder and fired home to cut off the run for what would’ve been the inning’s second out, but a replay showed catcher Chris Iannetta didn’t step on home plate for the force.
One batter later, Guillermo Heredia poked a two-run single, and just like that, Colorado was in a 3-0 hole.
Freeland resumed his usual dominance afterward, facing just one batter over the minimum over the next three innings during a stretch that included a nine-pitch third frame.
But the damage had already been done. The Rockies mustered just two hits and whiffed 13 times against reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell.
“We knew what was coming, it's just awful tough if you're sitting on that fastball and then here comes that change, or if you look for the offspeed and then he throws the fastball,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “That's what makes [Snell] who he is. That's what makes him a Cy Young Award winner.”
It was an extreme case of bad timing for an already struggling lineup to have to see Snell for seven innings. Trevor Story collected both of Colorado’s hits against the lefty, with singles in the fifth and seventh innings.
Fittingly enough, it was Story who on Tuesday warned not to read too much into the Rockies’ early offensive woes.
“It’s not for the lack of work, that’s for sure,” said Story, who is batting .375 (6-for-16) in his career against the Rays. “We know we haven’t performed the way we want to. … We’re very confident. We know just a couple big hits will turn us around.”
The Rockies’ shortstop had a point. Would a three-game slump still matter in July, or are things simply exacerbated so early in the season?
For now, Colorado has scored just twice in the past 32 innings and been held scoreless in two of four games during its current slump. Cause for concern? Not yet, said center fielder Ian Desmond. Of course, the pendulum will undoubtedly eventually swing back in the Rockies’ direction, and this stretch will be but a blip on the radar.
Until then, Colorado must do what it can to weather the storm as it moves to reclaim the form it had a year ago, when the Rockies hit .256 as a team and collected 748 RBIs, second only to the Dodgers among the National League.
“I’m not concerned one bit,” Desmond said. “We’ve all seen what this offense can do, and we have some guys in here who are coming together, and if we learned anything from last year, it’s that we have a lot of fight.”