Blister problems pester Freeland again amid strong outing

ATLANTA -- En route to yet another solid start in this encouraging second-half run that Kyle Freeland has enjoyed, an extremely unwelcome old pest popped up again.

Freeland left Colorado's eventual 3-0 loss to the Braves after five innings due to a blister problem on his left middle finger. The Rockies do not believe the condition will prevent him from making his next start, scheduled for Sunday in Milwaukee, but that doesn’t make Tuesday’s abbreviated outing at Truist Park any less frustrating.

“It’s very annoying dealing with this,” said Freeland. “We thought we got it taken care of over the past couple weeks, and then sure enough it pops up again. Very frustrating to be able to be pitching well in a game, keeping the club in the game, trying to get a win, and have that pop up and not have any feel for any sort of breaking stuff.”

To Freeland’s immense credit, he gutted out two effective innings after the blister began to bother him, getting through the fourth and fifth innings with two hits, two strikeouts and no runs. But for a variety of reasons, he and the club decided it was best not to push it any farther.

One main consideration was the desire to avoid jeopardizing his next outing, but it wasn’t the only one. There’s also the simple question of effectiveness; the longer a pitcher stays on the mound with only two pitches, the more likely it is that he’ll pay a price on the scoreboard.

“It affects the way you’re thinking out on the mound,” Freeland said. “If you’re trying to guard it and trying to get deeper in the game, that can cause havoc out there, giving up runs and completely losing the game. So there’s a lot that factors into it. And it stinks when we have to make a decision to pull me out.”

The effectiveness of his outing certainly magnified the frustration. Going toe to toe with one of the best lefties in the game, NL Cy Young favorite Chris Sale, Freeland was very nearly the Atlanta ace’s equal. He allowed two runs -- only one of them earned -- on six hits with five strikeouts and no walks.

In 13 starts since returning from an elbow injury in late June, Freeland has allowed two earned runs or fewer nine times. His ERA is 3.63 in that span, with 64 strikeouts against 16 walks in 74 1/3 innings. His overall numbers don’t reflect it due to a rough April before his injured list stint, but Freeland’s second-half effectiveness provides optimism that going forward, he could again be the kind of rotation anchor that he was earlier in his career.

“It lends itself to the team having tremendous confidence in Kyle,” said manager Bud Black. “I mean, we do anyway, but this run validates the type of pitcher he is. He’s gonna give us a chance to win every time he takes the mound. He’s throwing the fastball with conviction, the secondary pitches are great, they’re down in the strike zone. He’s doing everything he can to help us win the game every night that he pitches. … Along with that he [obviously brings] a great teammate element and leadership role.”

It’s that value that factors into the decision no one wanted to have to make, to remove Freeland from a game that had started so auspiciously. He’s spent time on the injured list due to blistering before, and it’s a priority to prevent that from happening again.

“He becomes really a pitch-and-a-half pitcher with the fastball, and even it affects the change a little bit,” Black said “So, gutsy for a couple innings but it just got to the point where it just didn’t make sense to run it back out there.”