Freeland analyzes recent performance following loss

DENVER -- Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland was once again left to study the small pieces of a puzzle that never came together Wednesday afternoon -- one that hasn’t been fitting for a long while.

There was little Freeland could do about the 11-1 loss to the Padres at Coors Field. The Rockies’ youthful lineup received a bitter lesson in the form of 15 strikeouts. Freeland’s six-inning fragment of influence was doomed when the Rockies had the bases loaded with one out in the fourth, only to manage a single run on Elehuris Montero’s groundout.

Freeland gave up four runs on three homers. Two were mistake pitches, to Ha-Seong Kim in the first inning and Gary Sánchez in the sixth, and one was blasted by an uncanny hitter, Juan Soto, for two runs in the third. But Freeland struck out six against one walk. In days of fully functioning Rockies teams, that performance may have been better than opposing pitching, and therefore celebrated.

Instead, in a familiar story since he signed a five-year, $64.5 million contract last May, Freeland (4-12, 4.86 ERA) wasn’t good enough. The Rockies -- depleted of pitching and injured for much of the year, and retooling in the final two months -- weren’t good enough to make him good enough.

“It’s very frustrating,” Freeland said. “The second year of this contract, definitely not how I pictured things for myself and this team. It’s tough on me. We all want to win. We all want to have success. And we all want to be in the playoffs, playing meaningful baseball.

“Right now it seems every time you look down that tunnel looking for the light, it just keeps moving further and further away.”

After his outings, Freeland has to avoid peering down the scary tunnel and concentrate step by step. For him, it’s a way of seeing something other than darkness.

“First, you take the broad result,” Freeland said. “Four runs, three homers. That’s not pretty. But when you start getting into the details of stuff, my fastball was really good today. My slider played well. My curveball was good today. We used the changeup when we needed to.

“I’ve still got to go back and watch the entire outing, really dig into it. But overall, this is a building block for me, coming in the second start off the IL [he missed the first two second-half starts because of a dislocated non-throwing shoulder], something I can move forward on.”

After a drop from the low 90s with his fastball to 88.3 mph coming into Wednesday, Freeland averaged 89.9 mph with a high of 92.5 mph -- the range he pitched in more regularly earlier in his career. From the second inning, he felt velocity and movement.

Freeland gave his overall execution a 60 percent grade, and noted he wants to be 65 or above.

“The one to Kim, leading off the game, was poorly located,” Freeland said. “Soto, after going back looking at the video, it just seems like he was sitting dead red on a fastball and he was going after fastball first pitch, no matter what. It was well above the zone, probably up near his chest. But that caliber of a player, if he’s sitting on a pitch like that, he’s going to get to it.

“The Sánchez one was just the difference between a 2-1 count and a 1-2 count.”

Each pitch, good and bad, requires cold, professional analysis.

“He’s a pro,” manager Bud Black said. “He’s a competitor. He’s gone to the post with the exception of when he separated his right shoulder. He knows his place on the team and he’s handling it fine.

“I’m sure he’s not happy with the results, the overall team results, but as far as his demeanor, his leadership, he’s doing fine.”

Freeland knows he has to keep pointing the Rockies to the light that’s available.

“The majority of guys in this clubhouse wear their emotions on their sleeves, and other guys see that, coaches see that, because we care and we want to win,” Freeland said. “Myself included.

“But I need to make sure I’m staying even-keeled, portraying that confidence that regardless of what’s going on in my outing, I try to stay right there. It’s hard not to get down on yourself when the team’s struggling, yourself is struggling, but I’m trying to keep that even keel.”