Rockies’ Kyle Freeland pitches eight brilliant innings in win over Padres days after ejection

Kyle Freeland wasn’t perfect, but he pitched a masterpiece on Friday night in the Rockies’ 3-0 victory over the Padres in front of 30,073 at Coors Field.

Just days removed from throwing only eight pitches in his last outing, the Rockies’ fiery veteran left-hander threw eight shutout innings, allowed just two hits, and tied a career-high with 10 strikeouts. Freeland did not walk a batter.

Freeland became the first pitcher in franchise history to pitch eight scoreless innings and allow two or fewer hits with 10 or more strikeouts.

“Fantastic, fantastic outing,” interim manager Warren Schaeffer said. “It was a really hard decision not to send him out for the ninth.”

Friday marked Colorado’s first shutout win over the Padres at Coors Field since April 24, 2018, a game which Freeland also started, throwing seven innings of three-hit ball, walking two, and striking out eight.

Freeland threw just 88 pitches Friday night, but the decision not to let him chase a complete game was partly because of his abbreviated start on Tuesday night against the Giants — one that saw him ejected without recording an out.

“I didn’t know my pitch count. I try not to know my pitch count when I’m throwing,” Freeland said. “Because I’m out there competing and I don’t want to start doing math in my head because I’m not very good at it.

“But when I walked off the field in the eighth, I was expecting to go back out for the ninth. ‘Schaeff’ was at the bottom of the dugout waiting for me, and I could tell that I was done. I paused for a second and then said, ‘OK.’ ”

Schaeffer added: “The discussion for the ninth inning was that Kyle was at 88 pitches. He did enough for us tonight. We had a three-run lead, and we had our closer available. Next time, might I think about it differently? Maybe. It’s definitely something to maybe learn from. But given the short start last time out, not that long ago, I felt like it was probably the right move.”

Of course, nothing comes easy for the 101-loss Rockies. In the ninth, closer Victor Vodnik gave up a leadoff walk to pinch-hitter Luis Arraez and a single to Fernando Tatis Jr. before getting Ryan O’Hearn to fly out and inducing Manny Machado to ground out to third baseman Kyle Karros to start a game-ending double play. Vodnik notched his seventh save.

The Rockies entered the night having lost 11 of their last 13 games, but led by Freeland and catcher Hunter Goodman, they put a crimp in the Padres’ playoff path. San Diego, in a race with the Dodgers for the National League West division title, lost its fifth game in a row.

Freeland has never pitched a complete game. The closest he came was on July 9, 2017, when he pitched 8 1/3 no-hit innings against the White Sox, the longest no-hit bid for a Rockies pitcher at Coors Field in franchise history.

Friday night, he had pinpoint precision with his fastball, which set up his wicked knuckle curve. Freeland said his stuff was similar to the game in which he almost no-hit the White Sox.

“It was a similar feel with my mechanics, and everything was working and how I was executing,” he said. “It was very similar to where I was on the mound, and I was very comfortable with every single pitch that was called. When you are comfortable on the mound like that, you can just let everything go and go to work.”1

Freeland pitched a perfect game until Ramon Laureano ripped a one-out double to left in the fifth inning. No worries, he got Jackson Merrill to fly out to left and struck out Jose Iglesias with a wicked knuckle curve to end the inning.

San Diego’s only other hit off Freeland was a two-out single by Iglesias in the eighth.

In the third and fourth innings, Freeland struck out five of the six hitters he faced, fanning Tatis, O’Hearn and Machado in the fourth.