Colorado Rockies: Kyle Freeland becomes new owner of White Sox

CHICAGO — Quick, someone check Wikipedia to see if Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Kyle Freeland has been edited in as the owner of the Chicago White Sox. If he hasn’t, someone has missed a golden opportunity.

The Colorado Rockies southpaw once again controlled the Southsiders, throwing 6.2 shutout innings on Wednesday at Guaranteed Rate Field to pace the Rockies to a 3-0 victory over the surging White Sox and earn a split of the two-game series. It was the second-ever appearance on the mound for Freeland against the White Sox, with the first being a near no-hitter at Coors Field in 2017 as he allowed just one hit over 8.1 innings.

Colorado Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland continued to dominate on Wednesday afternoon

Not only has Freeland cooked against the White Sox (now a combined 15.0 innings with no runs and eight hits allowed), but he also has a 0.98 ERA in three September starts, surrendering just two runs in 18.1 innings).

“We got ahead with the fastball early, throughout the whole game, using both sides of the plate, with a two-seam and four-seam (fastball),” Freeland said after the game. “We kept them off-balance and that allowed me to use the rest of my arsenal.”

That arsenal played well during his 97-pitch performance as he ran into issues in just one inning, with the first two White Sox batters reaching base in the fourth. However, Freeland recorded a strikeout and a fly out, and was then the beneficiary of a spectacular defensive play by Yonathan Daza to end the inning and keep the White Sox off the scoreboard. You can watch Daza’s play here.

Carlos Estévez and Daniel Bard finished off the shutout, with the duo combining for six strikeouts over the game’s final seven outs. Bard struck out the side in the ninth to log his 30th save of the season.

Daza also helped pace Colorado’s offensive surge, going 2-for-4 and logging an RBI single. Alan Trejo and C.J. Cron each record RBI knocks as well as the Rockies did all of their scoring in the game’s first five innings.

After an off day on Thursday, the Rockies head across Chicago to begin a three-game series against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Germán Márquez will take the mound for the Rockies while Marcus Stroman gets the call for the Cubs.