Fateful third inning spoils Opening Day for Rox

PHOENIX -- Just before Thursday night became an opening of the floodgates, Rockies starter Kyle Freeland looked as if he was receiving a desired result in the third inning.

Instead, the ground ball by the D-backs’ Ketel Marte -- which shortstop Ezequiel Tovar ranged to the middle to snare but couldn’t convert into any outs -- was merely the beginning of a night of lows. Freeland couldn’t come up with any way out of the worst single inning in club history and one of the worst in the annals of MLB Opening Day.

Tovar stopped, dropped and rolled, but could not start a double play -- then the third inning went aflame. The D-backs scored 14 runs in the inning en route to a 16-1 Rockies defeat at Chase Field.

“Unfortunately, it came on Opening Day -- one of those days where my locations weren’t there,” Freeland said. “I wasn't executing pitches.

“It just felt like everything was thrown up. Whether I executed it or not, they put good wood on it.”

The 14 runs, 13 hits and 18 batters sent to the plate in the third by Arizona all represented low-water marks in Rockies history -- one game into their 32nd season.

A 25-1 loss to the Angels last June 24 at Coors Field filled dark pages of the club record book. But Thursday’s third frame eclipsed the third against the Angels in terms of runs surrendered (13), hits (10, allowed two other times) and batters faced (16). The Rockies also gave up 10 hits in the ninth against the Padres on Sept. 12, 2004, and in the sixth against the Giants on Sept. 17 of last season.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the D-backs’ third inning on Thursday was the biggest single-inning outburst on Opening Day in the Modern Era (since 1900), surpassing the 12 that Cleveland scored against the St. Louis Browns on April 14, 1925. Only three times since 1900 has a team scored more runs in an inning than the D-backs’ 14 in the third on Thursday.

Geraldo Perdomo singled to open the third, followed by Marte’s infield single on the grounder Tovar couldn’t convert into an out anywhere. But it would be wrong to lay Freeland’s misfortune solely on Marte’s well-placed grounder.

Freeland, who served up a two-run shot to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (3-for-5, 5 RBIs) in the first inning and entered the third trailing, 2-1, kept the debacle in motion by walking Corbin Carroll to load the bases.

Then the D-backs unloaded.

“They put the ball in play,” Freeland said. “That's why hitters are paid to do -- put the ball in play, create action on the basepaths -- a lot of singles, and/or doubles, balls hit soft, seeing-eye ground balls. It was just everything that they were hitting.”

Freeland managed just one out in that fateful third inning, after seven straight batters had reached -- tied with Jason Jennings on April 1, 2003, for the longest such dry streak in a season-opener by a Rockies pitcher. Freeland finished with 2 1/3 innings pitched. He yielded eight of the career-worst 10 runs and seven of the 10 hits against him in the frame.

Freeland and manager Bud Black had the same reaction. With no clear identifier beyond pitches up and in the middle of the zone -- an obvious sign that Freeland was inadvertently giving away pitches -- they’ll do a clear-headed video review.

“Hopefully, Kyle makes 32, 33 starts during the regular season, and this is one where he just got knocked around,” Black said.

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It was a chastening beginning for a Rockies team that went 59-103 last season but believes the future is going to eventually turn. The futility records set obscured a two-hit, two-walk night from third baseman Ryan McMahon, who became the 15th player in club history to reach at least four times in an opener.

After Freeland departed, Anthony Molina yielded six runs and six hits in his one-third-of-an-inning Major League debut. Five times in club history has a pitcher given up seven runs in his debut, and Molina became the sixth to yield six.

“I’ll talk to him tomorrow,” Black said of Molina, a Rule 5 Draft pick from the Rays over the winter. “I’ll let this sink in a little bit. We'll put our arms around this young kid. We like the future. He’s got a lot of support from his teammates, but this was a tough one for him. These types of games will show a kid's mettle, and from what I've gathered from being around him for six weeks, he's a tough kid.”