Freeland showcases competitiveness in victory

MIAMI -- Rockies lefty Kyle Freeland’s Opening Day line looked easy -- seven innings, one run and two hits in the 6-3 victory over the Marlins at Marlins Park. But potential rough spots in the sixth and seventh on Thursday afternoon highlighted the traits that led to Freeland’s fourth-place finish in last year’s National League Cy Young Award voting.

• JT Riddle opened the sixth with a pinch-hit homer, but Freeland stamped the inning out on nine more pitches. He struck out Lewis Brinson, then forced groundouts from Brian Anderson and Starlin Castro.

• Freeland’s throwing error and his hitting Jorge Alfaro put two on with one out in the seventh. But Freeland used a pitch he spent the offseason honing -- a two-seam fastball to right-handed hitters -- to force a weak Miguel Rojas grounder. A fly ball from Rosell Herrera later, and Freeland was done.

The Marlins were done, even though Neil Walker homered off Scott Oberg in the eighth and Jorge Alfaro went deep off Seunghwan Oh with two down in the ninth.

Freeland showed the competitiveness that carried him last year, when he went 17-7 with a 2.85 ERA and held the Cubs scoreless for 6 2/3 innings of the Rockies’ eventual 2-1, 13-inning victory in the NL Wild Card Game.

The 25-year-old Freeland forced 12 grounders on Thursday. In addition to the ones after the homer, Freeland negated the other hit and his lone walk with subsequent inning-ending grounders.

“My whole game is really attack hitters with contact, get the ball on the ground, let the defense work,” Freeland said. “Today, it paid off big time with the ground balls.”

Freeland fashioned his strong 2018 even though his 7.7 strikeouts per nine innings doesn’t sound like consistent domination. But such an assessment would discount what Rockies manager Bud Black believes is an important trait of a winner.

“He has that ability to make pitches at critical times,” Black said. “And a lot of times -- not a lot of times but most of the time -- that’s the difference between a successful pitcher and not. He’s proven here in a couple-year period that he’s able to make some pitches.

“He has that knack of knowing the game situation, in-game awareness. To be able to make that pitch when it’s critical, he’s been able to do that.”