DENVER -- Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland expected his start on Thursday afternoon at Coors Field against the Dodgers to be a challenge of nerve and wit.

Offering a window into his thought process the day before taking the mound, Freeland laid out a few simple principles. Mix, mix, mix, stay unpredictable and stay ahead of those accomplished hitters’ adjustments.

The non-verbal part of the exchange -- a confident smile and a twinkle behind his sunglasses -- showed he trusted the plan.

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Freeland endured a 23-pitch first inning and a three-run second, but lasted six innings and walked away with a lead. However, Max Muncy’s 10th-inning, two-run homer gave the Dodgers a wild, 7-5 victory.

“From my rookie year in ‘17 up to now, it’s always exciting to face them. But at the same time, you’ve got to make sure you’re locked in, because that team can put you in a world of hurt really fast,” said Freeland, whose 4.50 ERA represents a rebound from a slow start to a season that began late because of a Spring Training left shoulder injury.

The Dodgers tied it in the ninth on Trea Turner’s RBI single off closer Carlos Estévez, who stayed in after being hit on the right leg by a Corey Seager single. Muncy’s leadoff homer in the 10th ended rookie lefty Lucas Gilbreath’s scoreless streak at 17 outings.

The ending gave the Dodgers a series win as they chase the National League West-leading Giants -- who will arrive at Coors Friday for a three-game set. Before the game turned sour for the Rockies, Freeland controlled his outing and didn’t let the highly regarded opponent control him.

Freeland wobbled early, but pitched around eight hits -- all but a couple of them soft ones that displayed the Dodgers’ feared ability to put the ball in play more than anything else -- and struck out five against one walk.

Freeland also drove in two runs with a two-out single in Colorado’s three-run second, and drew a leadoff walk in the fifth before Raimel Tapia launched a homer off the facing of the second deck against Max Scherzer for a 5-3 lead. The Rockies’ five earned runs against Scherzer, who left after the fifth, matched the total he had yielded in his previous nine Dodger starts since arriving in a trade with the Nationals.

Freeland entered 3-7 with a 4.06 ERA in 15 starts against the Dodgers, with slightly better numbers at Dodger Stadium than at home. But his Aug. 27 road start against them was a fresh positive -- six innings, two runs (solo homers by Will Smith and Turner) and seven strikeouts in a 4-2 Rockies win. In that outing, Freeland mixed his 94 pitches to an extreme -- throwing his curveball 30 percent of the time, slider 22, four-seam fastball 21, two-seam fastball 15 and changeup 12.

It was different from facing, say, the Nationals, whom he held scoreless on seven hits in six innings in his last start balancing just his fastball and curve.

Freeland revealed his strategy by throwing everything against the more-experienced Dodgers in the first -- when he gave up a Seager single and walked Turner with one out, but escaped scoreless.

“That lineup can go a couple different ways -- they can be extremely aggressive or wait you out and make you come into the zone,” Freeland said. “That’s kind of what they did early. They did a good job of laying off some quality pitches that were strike-to-ball.”

AJ Pollock’s solid double to left led off the second inning, but three soft singles -- two on the ground and a Seager floater in short right -- created a 3-0 deficit and a rising Freeland pitch count.

“I was concerned early, which I told Kyle -- 46 pitches after two innings, and then he sort of got it together,” Rockies manager Bud Black said.

Freeland’s two-run single tied it, and his walk set up Tapia’s first homer since May 21. Tapia’s homer served the purpose of letting Freeland rest in the dugout for the sixth.

“When I got off the mound in the fifth inning, I went over to some of our position players and told them good job -- defensively they made some good plays behind me,” Freeland said. “As I was going over to my spot in the dugout to sit, Buddy came over. And before he said anything I told him, ‘I’ve got one more in me.’ And he just turned and went back.”

Then Freeland finished his 97-pitch outing by forcing weak contact from Pollock, Austin Barnes and Gavin Lux, all of whom had hits against him earlier. Freeland left with confidence against the Dodgers.