Kuhl goes toe to toe with Fried in battle of arms 

DENVER -- It finally happened. They ran out of runs at Coors Field.

After the Rockies and Braves combined for 19 runs in Thursday’s series opener, the two teams were scoreless for nine innings Friday night before the Rockies fell, 3-1, in the 10th inning. It was just the second time in Coors Field’s history that a game has been scoreless through nine. The starters for the first feat, back on Sept. 14, 2008? Greg Maddux for the Dodgers and Aaron Cook for the Rockies.

Starter Chad Kuhl was the antidote the Rockies needed. After Rockies pitchers gave up 39 runs over the previous three games, Kuhl put up six scoreless to set the tone.

“It could just be the way that baseball works, sometimes,” said Kuhl of the 11.14 ERA in the previous four starts of the other regular rotation members. “People fall into slumps, and, hopefully, this will propel our starting rotation as a whole.”

While it may not have been a textbook “stopper” performance, Kuhl did stop the barrage of runs that had been filling up the top line of the box score in recent games, and he largely spared a taxed bullpen.

“Length is really important,” Kuhl said. “You're gonna give up runs, you're gonna give up hits, but in a situation where the bullpen may be tapped -- we've been playing for a while, we don't have an off-day for a couple days, giving length was just really important. That's my main focus.”

Manager Bud Black had sounded a warning after Thursday’s game that his starters needed to pitch better -- with the notable exception of Kuhl and spot starter Ryan Feltner. Though it looked like déjà vu all over again in the first, Kuhl quickly turned the tide.

“Chad had a rough first, couple walks, just a little bit off his location,” Black said. “But then he reeled it in and became really efficient. The mix of pitches -- the fastball had movement, slider, mixed in the curveball, threw some changeups, so a four-pitch mix. Chad threw really well against a team that’s starting to hit a little bit.”

Kuhl loaded the bases with two outs in the first frame, but battled back to escape danger and find his rhythm, retiring eight in a row from the third through the fifth innings and allowing just five hits while walking two and striking out three. He threw 28 pitches in that first inning, but got more efficient as the game went on, finishing with 98 pitches (66 strikes) over his six innings.

“I was a little out of whack in the first, just flying open,” Kuhl explained. “The fastball command really was key. I feel like I threw a ton of good fastballs in the zone, around the zone. Just got better after that first, for sure. I just knew that I had to be a lot more precise. I was attacking [and] I was getting strike one a lot.”

It took until the 10th inning for the Braves to pose another significant threat with reliever Carlos Estévez on the mound. With the automatic runner standing on second, Estévez issued a walk and hit Darby Swanson to load the bases, then threw his second wild pitch of the inning to allow the game’s first run. Lucas Gilbreath relieved Estévez and promptly gave up the inning’s first hit, a decisive two-run single to Matt Olson.

As much as Kuhl managed to cuff the Atlanta hitters, Braves starter Max Fried was even more effective at putting the Rockies away. Colorado managed just three baserunners over Fried’s eight innings, with a single from Connor Joe to extend his on-base streak to 30 games, a double from Randal Grichuk and a walk from Ryan McMahon.

“He’s got really good stuff, he knows how to pitch,” said Joe of Fried. “His fastball was good today. He was mixing his pitches really well. Landing that curve ball early, his slider was good inside, not too many mistakes over the middle of the plate. It's [going to] be a tough day to hit when a pitcher with that kind of stuff is doing exactly what he wants to do. But for our pitching to keep us in that game and for us to have a shot every inning to win that ballgame is all we can ask for.”