Colorado Rockies morning after: A costly bullpen decision that raises even more questions

The Rockies manager didn’t think Freeland was throwing as well as he did earlier.

After the game, Bud Black described the situation leading up to removing Freeland from the game when he spoke with the media, including Rox Pile.

"“At that point, Kyle started to hit a wall,” said Black. “His stuff wasn’t as crisp–I think–as that inning unfolded. He ended the sixth [inning] with two strikeouts [so] he looked good. After the inning, he said ‘I can give you one more [inning],’ and I said ‘Great, you’re throwing fine,” but during that inning, I thought that he just lost a little zip on his fastball. I think when he walked [Edwin] Rios, the lefty, I think that was a sign to take (Freeland) out. “[With Betts coming to bat] against Kyle, approaching 100 pitches when I thought his stuff was, maybe, not as crisp as it was earlier in the game, I thought that was not a great matchup so we went with Carlos [Estevez], who had three days of rest, who’s been throwing with good velocity of late–I think you saw that today, up to 98, 99–I thought that was a good matchup against Betts but he hung a slider on the 0-1 pitch and from there, it sort of unraveled.”"

As Black mentioned, two pitches in and Estevez gives up the lead. Okay, he inherits two runners on and one out. The chance that a run will score is fairly high. But two pitches later, another run scores. Two more pitches later, another run scores on a wild pitch.

Justin Turner strikes out after the wild pitch but Max Muncy walks on six pitches and three pitches later, Will Smith doubles in two runs, making it 7-2 Dodgers. The Rockies have to burn another reliever in Jairo Diaz and, frankly, the game is over already.

However, Diaz walks Cody Bellinger, Tony Wolters allows two passed balls in the same AB to Chris Taylor, who draws a bases-loaded walk on the final passed ball, and the game is completely out of reach at 8-2.