Freeland continues second-half resurgence to help secure series win

MILWAUKEE -- The second-half resurgence of Rockies veteran hurler Kyle Freeland continued in Milwaukee on Sunday.

In one of his better outings of the season, Freeland held the Brewers to three hits and one unearned run over six innings. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out four in an efficient 89-pitch outing (64 strikes) as the Rockies went on to a 4-1 victory at American Family Field to take two of three games from the NL Central-leading Brewers.

After giving up the first career hit to Isaac Collins with one out in the second, Freeland retired 14 consecutive batters before giving way to the bullpen, which finished the task. Freeland, Seth Halvorsen, Angel Chivilli and Tyler Kinley, who earned his 11th save, combined to retire 23 consecutive batters to end the game.

Freeland got all the support he needed to record his fifth win of the season with home runs from Hunter Goodman and Sam Hilliard.

“My body and my mechanics feel really good. In tune with all that,” Freeland said. “My mechanics since I came back from the IL have been very sound, and exactly how I want them and I’ve been getting good results.”

Freeland notched his ninth quality start of the season. He has three quality starts in his last four outings. He was on his way to another effective outing on Tuesday before being forced to leave after five innings due to a recurring blister on the pinky of his left hand.

“We were able to doctor it up, and put something on it to guard the skin against the nail and allow some of that pressure to be alleviated,” Freeland said. “It worked out. It held up all day.”

Freeland has pitched well, for the most part, since returning from the injured list in late June. He was placed on the IL in April with a left elbow strain and after his start on Sunday, Freeland is 5-4 with a 3.36 ERA in 14 starts.

“You sort of get on a roll, and you get momentum and you end up making pitches when you need to make them,” manager Bud Black said. “Kyle is running on eight years now as a Major League starting pitcher, and you figure that out and he feels good physically. He’s back from the elbow ailment that he had early in the year. He’s in a good spot both physically and mentally.”

Black said Freeland was “slow out of the chute,” but that the movement on his pitches changed after the second inning.

“It looked as though the Brewers were a little bit more aggressive than they were in the first couple innings and that worked to Kyle’s advantage, too,” Black said.

The Rockies skipper also had high praise for the performance of the young bullpen arms on Sunday.

“That’s a thing that’s a positive moving forward,” Black said. “We’re looking forward to their future, and what they did against a playoff-bound team in their ballpark is pretty impressive.”

Hilliard described Freeland as a “dog on the mound.”

“He’s been doing that ever since he came back from the IL,” Hilliard said. “I love having him on the mound. Even if he doesn’t have his best stuff, he’s going to get outs.”

Hilliard got a spot in the Rockies starting lineup on Sunday and took full advantage. He smacked a game-changing three-run homer in the fifth -- his seventh of the season -- off Brewers left-handed reliever Hoby Milner to break open a tie game. Hilliard got the start in place of Brenton Doyle, who sat out Sunday with a hand injury he sustained while making a spectacular diving catch on the warning track in the second inning of Saturday night’s game.

The left-handed-hitting Hilliard also homered after entering the game for Doyle the previous night off lefty Jared Koenig.

“Not happy about a couple of my at-bats, the way they went, but I was able to put a good swing on a ball there, left-on-left,” Hilliard said. “I’ve been feeling good against lefties lately. That’s definitely a good sign for my swing and my approach, in general. If I can get it going against righties, then we can start having some fun. Just happy to be able to contribute in that way and help the team win.”

Despite being out of the playoff hunt, Hilliard said the team still has a lot to prove.

“It’s a great feeling. We’re capable of beating anybody in a series,” he said. “We’re out of the playoff picture, but we’re trying to make an impact anyway we can. We believe in the talent we have. We’ve got a lot of really good young players right now, too.”