Fate doesn't favor Freeland against Judge, Yanks

NEW YORK -- Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland pitched well enough to win Friday night’s game against the Yankees. In fact, he gave Colorado length by throwing 6 2/3 innings. But he had some bad luck in a 3-0 loss at Yankee Stadium.

At the start, it looked like Freeland was in for a long night. The first two hitters -- Gleyber Torres and Juan Soto -- reached base on a double and a walk. But Freeland settled down and retired the next 10 hitters he faced.

Freeland, however, found himself behind in the game starting in the fourth inning. With two outs, Giancarlo Stanton powered the ball over the right-center-field wall for his 22nd home run of the season.

Colorado’s defense betrayed Freeland an inning later. New York had runners on second and third with two outs. Torres came to the plate and hit what looked like a routine ground ball to third baseman Ryan McMahon, but McMahon booted the ball for an error, which allowed Anthony Volpe to score the second run of the game.

“The ball hit some kind of divot and it kicked to the left,” manager Bud Black said. “It looked like [McMahon] was going to backhand the ball, and all of a sudden, he had to readjust his glove because the ball moved on him.”

Freeland contained Aaron Judge during the latter’s first two at-bats, inducing a double play in the first and a line drive that McMahon leaped to snag in the fourth. But that third at-bat -- well, let’s say Freeland wasn’t so lucky.

Freeland made a good pitch to Judge on the inside part of the plate with a 1-1 count, but the slugger managed to hit his 49th home run over the left-center-field wall. Judge is on pace to finish one shy of the American League record of 62 home runs that he set in 2022.

“That’s MVP stuff right there,” Freeland said about Judge. “I think we did a good job setting him up for that pitch. [We started] with a changeup that went for a ball down and away. Then we had a fastball down and away. Then we went to surprise him up and in. … I was trying to jam him up like we did in his last at-bat. He was able to clear his hands and take it deep.

“It’s fun. Those are the kind of guys you want to be facing. You want to match up against those kinds of guys in your career and be able to go against Judge, Stanton and [Soto], three of the top four guys in the lineup who are savages. It’s fun to go to battle with them. At the same time, you have to be well aware that any mistake can be taken deep.”

Judge has mutual respect for Freeland for the way he has handled him over the years.

"Freeland is a tough pitcher. He's pitched me tough in the past,” Judge said. “He's got a good fastball, two different fastballs he used, and a good changeup off of that. So a guy like that, you've got to pick a side of the plate and do some damage. So luckily, I was looking in [for] that situation. He got me out [inside] earlier, so I was just able to get the barrel on it."

Since he was activated from the injured list on June 23, Freeland has consistently given Colorado a chance to win over his 10 starts, allowing 30 runs (27 earned) in 63 1/3 innings for a 3.84 ERA while winning three games. Before his return, Freeland reassessed how he was throwing the ball. It was a matter of fixing his mechanics, and now that his elbow is healthy, his fastball is up from the high 80s to the low 90s.

“He regained his form,” Black said. “But I think it’s velocity, and the secondary pitches have been down -- knees and below. The secondary pitches have been consistently in good spots.”

The Rockies had Yankees left-hander Carlos Rodón on the ropes during his six scoreless innings. Colorado’s best chance to score came in the third inning. It had runners on second and third with two outs, but Brendan Rodgers struck out to end the threat.

The Rockies had a first-and-second situation with two outs two innings later, but Rodón was able to induce Rodgers to ground out to end the inning.

“We had a couple of chances. We couldn’t come through with a big hit,” Black said. “We drove his pitch count up -- over 100 pitches [102] in six innings. There were a couple of opportunities, but we couldn’t catch him.”