DENVER -- Yes, the batter was Dodgers star Mookie Betts. But we’ll never know if Rockies lefty Kyle Freeland had another batter in him Thursday night.

Freeland was at 96 pitches in the seventh inning of a tie game, so manager Bud Black’s decision to pull him was certainly defensible. However, a slumping Carlos Estévez replaced Freeland and coughed up Betts’ RBI single that started a six-run inning and sent the Rockies to a 9-3 loss at Coors Field.

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The Rockies, 11-3 in the beginning of the 60-game schedule, fell to a season-worst five games below .500. And the eight-team National League playoff bracket seems that much farther away.

The strategic decision became the focus in a six-run defeat, and highlighted the Rockies’ biggest problem: they aren’t strong enough offensively, nor is their bullpen fresh enough, to keep games from falling to pieces. But Freeland won’t let himself believe that.

“You can't get frustrated with it,” Freeland said. “We’re out there trying to do our jobs to the best of our ability, get deep into games and give the offense a chance to help us win a game. We can’t do anything more than that. We just need to continue to do it as a starting rotation and then continue to have faith in our offense -- which we do.”

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Freeland yielded four runs on six hits in 6 1/3 innings. It was just shy of a quality start, of which he has eight this season. The aforementioned reasons for removing Freeland were sound. Freeland ended the sixth with two strikeouts, but in the seventh, Black saw his fastball decline -- and Freeland walked his last batter, Edwin Ríos.

However, Freeland had held Betts hitless in three at-bats on Thursday, and had him 0-for-8, career.

“There were some good swings in that 0-for-8, for sure, but it was more about where Kyle was physically more than anything,” Black said. “He was 0-for-8, but Betts was 0-for-3 against Carlos, so you can look at it a lot of different ways. But I thought that was it for Kyle.”

Freeland said, “Buddy’s the manager. It’s his call. And I had full faith in Estévez to hopefully get a ground-ball double play. But as a starter, no matter what, I never want to be pulled from an inning.”

Estévez, who had a 2.25 ERA through Aug. 25, had given up runs in five of his previous seven games, and multiple runs in four of those. However, Black said he stayed away from the tired right arms of Mychal Givens and Yency Almonte -- important figures when fresh.

Estévez yielded four (three earned) on three hits, a walk and a wild pitch.

Not helping matters was that, after scoring two runs on three hits in the first inning, the Rockies resumed their cold offensive ways, not managing another hit until Kevin Pillar’s leadoff single in the seventh, and not getting another run until Trevor Story’s one-out solo shot in the eighth. The Rockies’ five-game streak of three or fewer runs at home is longest in a single year, and tied for longest in franchise history (Sept. 30, 2017 to April 8, 2018).

“The way ‘Free’ pitched, he’s been doing it all year,” Story said. “We’ve got to be honest with ourselves while staying positive. It doesn't do much good to harp on it, be negative about it. We're trying to find ways to get it right.

“We got to decide what we're going to do. We have 11 left, grab a spot right now, so

I’ve got to be better. We all have to do better.”

In a year of normal performance, the Rockies would be pointing to their starting pitching as a key for the late run. But they’ve dropped to 11-16 at home, and assured themselves of a losing record at empty Coors, mainly because the rotation is trying to overcome shortcomings in other areas.

The Rockies dropped to 2-4 on the homestand, despite the starters compiling a 2.66 ERA. The only win for any of them was Antonio Senzatela’s complete game, a 3-1 victory over the Athletics on Tuesday night.

Freeland’s night was better than his numbers. Corey Seager homered on Freeland’s first pitch of the fourth. The Dodgers loaded the bases with two out, and Enrique Hernández let a pitch clip his elbow pad for a second run.

But with the expanded postseason format, the Rockies will have to depend on a couple of their less-experienced starters -- rookie Ryan Castellani on Friday night and righty Chi Chi González on Saturday -- to uphold the rotation’s solid run, while hoping other components somehow awaken to salvage the series and the homestand.

Not to mention the 2020 season.