Colorado Rockies morning after: Another day with too many Ks

ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. — With an offense struggling mightily, the Colorado Rockies needed a Herculean effort from their 2019 Opening Day starter in his second trip to the mound this season. They received a solid effort … but it still wasn’t enough to get the Rockies back in the win column.

Kyle Freeland tied a career-high with 10 strikeouts but a first-inning slip-up and some wayward mechanics was enough to cost the Colorado Rockies the momentum and quickly put the Rockies behind the 8 ball. With little punch at the plate, Colorado dropped its fourth consecutive game, falling to the Tampa Bay Rays, 4-0.

Even with Freeland on the mound, it was expected to be a tough task for the Rockies offense to get back on track against reigning American League Cy Young champion Blake Snell. The left-hander proved worthy of his hardware on Tuesday, striking out 13 Rockies (tying a career-high). It was the second consecutive night the Rays put up 13 or more Ks against Colorado’s struggling bats that have produced just one run over the last 30 innings.

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Snell looked almost unstoppable at times. At one point in the contest, Colorado’s six through nine hitters (Ian Desmond, Mark Reynolds, Chris Iannetta and Pat Valaika) were a combined 0-for-7 with seven strikeouts and one walk.

Yeah, that’s dominant. But it’s not like the offense was cooking at the top of the lineup either. When Snell left after the seventh inning, he had allowed two singles to Trevor Story. That was it. For Story, however, the first single snapped an 0-for-13 skid and was part of a 2-for-3 night.

It didn’t get any better after Snell left either. Colorado finished with just those two singles.

"“We’d much rather be 6-0 but we’re not,” Black said of his 2-4 squad. “We have to start swinging the bats.”"

Snell’s performance was just the fourth time in Rockies history that a pitcher had thrown seven or more innings and allowed two hits or fewer, no runs and had 13 or more strikeouts.

It’s part of a trend that has seen Colorado batters strike out 59 times in the first six games of the season.

Freeland, meanwhile, allowed three runs in a first inning that could’ve been different had a replay not gone against the Rockies. Originally called out on a force play at home, leadoff hitter Yandy Diaz was ruled safe when, upon replay, Iannetta’s foot was shown to not be on home plate when he received the throw home from Nolan Arenado.

"“Revisionist history, the world changes on every pitch or every play that’s made,” Black said. “That’s one you don’t see really, the catcher not keeping his heel down. That’s unfortunate.”"

That was the start of three runs marked against Freeland in the frame and part of the reason why he had a 36-pitch first inning. That would eventually keep him from pitching five full innings, with Bud Black pulling him after his 99th pitch. Freeland recorded 4.2 innings with two earned runs allowed, snapping a streak of 12 straight quality starts and a skein of 30 straight games where he had gone five innings or more. That was the second-longest active streak in Major League Baseball.

After the game, Freeland said his mechanics were off in the first inning.

"“I was being too quick throwing,” Freeland said. “I noticed it once the first inning was done. I was able to make that adjustment, but that was not a good tone to set coming off these last three losses.”"

A night when the ace was off and the bats were silent? Yeah, it’s a recipe for another loss and that’s exactly what was cooked up on Tuesday night.