Kyle Freeland worked eight strong innings, Zac Veen put a baseball into McCovey Cove and the Rockies got contributions from all over the roster in a 5-2 win over the San Francisco Giants Thursday night at Oracle Park.
Colorado improved to 49-73 with the win, while San Francisco fell to 50-72. The Rockies are now just one game behind the Giants in the NL West.
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Freeland earned the win to improve to 4-10, allowing one run on four hits over 8.0 innings. Landen Roupp took the loss and fell to 7-12 after allowing four runs over 5.2 innings.
Veen supplied the biggest swing with a two-run splash homer in the sixth, but the Rockies did not win on one swing alone. TJ Rumfield extended a two-out rally, Troy Johnston drove in the first run, Brett Sullivan helped manufacture another, Connor Norby drew two walks and stole a base, Willi Castro added a ninth-inning sacrifice fly, and the defense came up with several important plays behind Freeland.
It was a solid win all the way around.
Freeland keeps the Giants on the ground
Freeland gave the Rockies eight strong innings without needing many strikeouts to get there.
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He allowed one run on four hits with one walk and two strikeouts over 8.0 innings. He threw 95 pitches, 66 for strikes, and recorded 13 ground-ball outs.
Freeland leaned most heavily on his sinker and knuckle curve, throwing 27 sinkers and 26 knuckle curves. He also mixed in 14 cutters, 12 changeups, 11 four-seam fastballs and five sweepers.
The sinker averaged 90.4 mph with 16 inches of horizontal movement. The knuckle curve averaged 82.2 mph and produced three whiffs, including one of Freeland’s two strikeouts.
His first strikeout offered an early look at how he would mix those pitches. Freeland opened Rafael Devers with an 89.7 mph sinker for a called strike, followed with an 82.5 mph sweeper for another, then showed an 82.6 mph knuckle curve below the zone. With Devers still in a 1-2 count, Freeland went back to a 91.2 mph sinker and got the swing-through.
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There was hard contact.
San Francisco averaged 91.8 mph on 24 balls in play and produced 11 hard-hit balls. Bryce Eldridge did the only damage that reached the scoreboard, driving an 86.0 mph cutter 104.3 mph and 409 feet to dead center for his 13th home run in the fourth inning.
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Freeland settled right back in.
Osleivis Basabe singled with two outs later in the fourth, but Freeland picked him off before the inning could develop any further. In the fifth, Freeland issued his first and only walk, then got Christian Koss to hit a sharp grounder to short for an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.
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The final three innings were cleaner.
Freeland retired the Giants in order in the sixth and started doing a little more with the knuckle curve in the seventh. He opened Victor Bericoto with consecutive knuckle curves for a called strike and a whiff, showed him a fastball above the zone, then went back below the zone with an 81.9 mph knuckle curve for strike three.
Two groundouts followed.
Freeland carried the same rhythm into the eighth. Buddy Kennedy grounded out to first, Andrew Knizner popped out to first, and Basabe became Freeland’s 13th and final ground-ball out.
That last at-bat was another example of the mix. Freeland opened Basabe with an 81.8 mph knuckle curve for a strike, moved between the sinker, cutter and curve as the count reached 2-2, then got Basabe to roll an 82.7 mph knuckle curve to third for the final out of his night.
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Freeland did not miss many bats, and the Giants did hit several balls hard.
They never turned that contact into sustained pressure.
Freeland worked quickly, stayed around the zone and kept putting the ball on the ground. Eight innings later, Eldridge’s solo homer was the only run San Francisco had managed against him.
Rockies make Roupp work, then make him pay
Roupp’s movement was real from the beginning.
He struck out five over 5.2 innings and generated 14 whiffs on 46 swings. His curveball led the way at 36% usage, averaging 76.7 mph with 19 inches of horizontal break and 3,100 rpm. Roupp also generated six whiffs on eight swings against his four-seam fastball.
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For the first three innings, the Rockies had trouble doing much with it.
That began to change with two outs in the fourth.
Roupp struck out Mickey Moniak and Castro to start the inning before Rumfield fell behind 0-2. Rather than giving Roupp an easy third out, Rumfield fouled off a sinker and changeup, laid off two pitches outside the zone and eventually served a 76.4 mph curveball into left for a soft two-out single.
Johnston supplied the hard contact.
He got an 85.5 mph changeup and drove it 102.1 mph at a 28-degree launch angle into Triples Alley. The ball traveled 410 feet for Johnston’s first triple of the season, scoring Rumfield and giving Colorado a 1-0 lead.
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The inning kept going.
Norby walked, stole second for his seventh stolen base of the season and Veen came to the plate already having seen Roupp’s stuff once.
Veen quickly fell behind 0-2. He then laid off a fastball above the zone, two changeups below it, fought off a curveball with the count full and finally took an 89.4 mph cutter outside for ball four.
The Rockies left the bases loaded when Ezequiel Tovar grounded out, but Roupp had gone from cruising through two quick strikeouts to laboring through an extended two-out rally.
Colorado came back with another run in the fifth.
Sullivan led off by driving a 92.6 mph sinker 104.0 mph and 413 feet off the wall in right-center for his 11th double. Jake McCarthy moved him to third, and with the infield in, Moniak hit a hard grounder to Koss at short.
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Sullivan broke on contact.
The throw arrived home just as Sullivan slid his hand across the plate, putting the Rockies back in front 2-1.
Then Veen changed the game.
Norby drew his second walk of the night with one out in the sixth and moved to second on a wild pitch. Roupp started Veen with a fastball above the zone, and Veen expanded and swung through it.
Veen stepped out of the box.
He appeared to reset.
Two pitches later, Roupp left a 76.5 mph curveball where Veen could handle it.
Veen hit it 111.3 mph at a 32-degree launch angle and sent it 406 feet into McCovey Cove.
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The two-run homer was Veen’s second of the season and extended Colorado’s lead to 4-1.
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It was also the fifth splash homer by a Rockies hitter and the first since Charlie Blackmon on June 7, 2022. Veen became the fourth Rockie to do it, joining Blackmon, Cory Dickerson and Carlos González, who did it twice.
Rockies add insurance before the defense finishes it
The Giants bullpen quieted Colorado for a while after Roupp departed.
JT Brubaker worked a clean seventh, including a 95.4 mph sinker that ran back over the edge to freeze Moniak. Harris followed by striking out the side around a Johnston walk in the eighth.
Colorado had a chance for more in the ninth.
Tovar walked and Sullivan singled before McCarthy grounded into a force at third. Moniak then walked to load the bases, bringing San Francisco manager’s bullpen back into action with Jason Foley replacing Harris.
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Castro got one run home with a sacrifice fly to left. An errant throw allowed Moniak to advance to second, and Rumfield walked to reload the bases before Johnston grounded out.
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The Rockies had an opportunity to break the game open, but settled for an important insurance run.
Brennan Bernardino replaced Freeland for the bottom of the ninth and immediately found trouble. Jonah Cox tripled and Devers followed with an RBI double, cutting Colorado’s lead to 5-2 with nobody out.
Then the defensive substitution paid off.
Cole Carrigg had entered in center field before the eighth, with McCarthy moving to right. Eldridge lined a ball toward center, and Carrigg charged in and made a terrific catch just above the grass.
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Devers had already broken toward third.
Carrigg got the ball back in, Norby completed the play at second and the Rockies suddenly had two outs and nobody on. The Giants challenged whether Carrigg had trapped the ball, but the ruling was upheld.
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Bericoto followed with a single, but Castro ended the game with another strong defensive play, ranging from third into foul territory and making the catch up against the railing.
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The ninth started to get uncomfortable.
Carrigg and Castro made sure it did not stay that way for long.
Final thoughts
Oracle Park produced one of the stranger statistical details of the night.
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Eldridge’s fourth-inning home run traveled 409 feet.
Johnston’s triple traveled 410.
Sullivan’s double went 413.
Johnston’s drive produced the Rockies’ only two-out RBI. Sullivan’s double started the fifth-inning rally that put Colorado back ahead. Both were significant swings even if Oracle Park kept them from becoming home runs.
The Rockies also got considerable value from players whose box-score lines do not immediately jump off the page.
Norby finished 0-for-2 but walked twice, stole a base and scored ahead of Veen’s homer. Rumfield had one hit, but that hit came after he fought back from 0-2 and kept the fourth inning alive. He also walked in the ninth.
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Colorado finished with only six hits but drew seven walks.
The Rockies went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left nine runners aboard, so there were opportunities to score more. But they also found several ways to produce runs without simply waiting for a home run: Rumfield’s two-out battle, McCarthy moving Sullivan to third, Moniak’s fielder’s choice, Norby’s walks and Castro’s sacrifice fly all played a part.
The defense mattered too.
Tovar helped the Rockies escape a messy third inning by turning Devers’ grounder into a double play after Colorado failed to complete a rundown. He later started the 6-4-3 double play that erased Freeland’s only walk.
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Carrigg’s ninth-inning catch was the biggest defensive play of the night.
And Veen supplied the biggest swing.
Freeland supplied the rest.
It added up to one of Colorado’s more complete wins.
Up next
The Rockies and Giants continue the series Friday afternoon at Oracle Park, with first pitch scheduled for 2:05 p.m. MDT.
Colorado will send Michael Lorenzen to the mound. The right-hander enters the game 3-10 with a 6.83 ERA and 81 strikeouts.
San Francisco will counter with Logan Webb, who comes in 7-7 with a 3.59 ERA and 103 strikeouts.
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