Kyle Freeland wears his love for the Rockies on his sleeve — literally and figuratively.
The lefty starter has the numbers 303 and 5,280 tattooed on his arm, and the Denver native’s passion for his team is apparent every time he takes the mound. Tuesday night at Busch Stadium, that passion translated into a desperately needed win for the Rockies.
Behind Freeland’s best performance of the season, and powered by a massive home run by catcher Hunter Goodman, the Rockies blanked the Cardinals 3-0 to snap an eight-game losing streak. It was just the second shutout of the season for Colorado, with the other one also coming against the Cardinals, on July 23 at Coors Field.
Freeland was splendid, pitching 7 1/3 scoreless innings and giving up just five hits. It was his longest start since July 9, 2017, when he threw a no-hitter for 8 1/3 innings vs. the White Sox at Coors Field before Melky Cabrera slapped a one-out single in the ninth inning.
“That was the best start we have had from anybody all season,” manager Warren Schaeffer told reporters in St. Louis. “He was commanding the baseball, and he was efficient. That’s what it looks like when Kyle is really good. It was good to have him healthy.”
Freeland’s energy level was finally back after a nasty illness left him feeling weak in his two previous starts.
“It definitely feels good to be healthy and 100% going out there,” Freeland told reporters. “Especially after those two rough ones, where my health wasn’t that great. But tonight, I felt really good out there, working with ‘Goody.’ We had a good game plan going in.”
The lefty fanned only two batters — the second K was the 900th of his career — but he induced three groundball double plays, tying a career high. He recorded 11 outs via groundball. He departed in the eighth after giving up a one-out single to Thomas Saggese, followed by a walk to Victor Scott.
Enter closer Victor Vodnik, who notched a five-out save, his third save of the season. The right-hander struck out the dangerous Brendan Donovan, and then fanned Ivan Herrera to close out the eighth. Nolan Gorman led off the Cardinals’ ninth with a double, but Vodnik didn’t flinch. He got Alec Burleson and Masyn Winn to fly out, then struck out Jordan Walker with a wicked changeup to close out the game.
“Getting it to the eighth inning was huge for us and our bullpen,” Schaffer said. “And Vic, with five days off, came in and got a five-out save, which was great for him — and for us.”
Goodman super-charged the Rockies to a 2-0 lead in the fourth. He mashed starter Mathew Liberatore’s 2-1 changeup 442 feet into the left-field seats — the longest homer at Busch this season. The ball shot off Goodman’s bat at 112.2 mph. It was Goodman’s 23rd home run, the 14th away from Coors Field.
For the first three innings, Liberatore was perfect, but the Rockies reached him for three hits in the fourth and ran him off the mound in the fifth. Brenton Doyle drew a leadoff walk and smartly took third on Kyle Karros’ single. Doyle scored on Kyle Farmer’s one-out single to give Colorado a 3-0 lead.
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