MILWAUKEE -- Before he hit the injured list on June 15 with low back stiffness, Kyle Freeland had been pitching more effectively on the mound.
In each of his three previous outings, he tossed quality starts. That was his longest quality-start streak since he threw five in a row between June 23-July 20, 2024.
So, when asked what he wanted to see out of the nine-year veteran lefty upon his return from the IL, manager Warren Schaeffer kept it simple: “I'm just looking for him to pick up where he left off. Just attacking the zone, giving us a chance to win. Just everything that he does well out there, and compete.”
After a minimum IL stint, the Rockies activated Freeland to start the series opener at American Family Field on Friday. It wasn’t the return the 32-year-old envisioned, though, as Freeland was tagged for six runs in just four innings of work -- all coming in the bottom of the fourth -- in Colorado’s 10-6 loss to Milwaukee.
“I felt good. I felt healthy out there,” Freeland said. “I felt like I was filling up the zone, doing a good job. Unfortunately, that fourth inning just unraveled on me with some seeing-eye ground balls and some base hits, and then that big home run there at the end by [Brewers center fielder Jackson] Chourio.”
Freeland worked around some traffic to keep the Brewers off the board in the first three innings. He looked effective, and he found ways to make the big pitch when he needed to.
“Those first three innings, I thought he pitched well,” Schaeffer said. “He handled the running game very well against that team, which is essential.”
But things broke the other way in the bottom of the fourth.
Freeland gave up a leadoff single to Milwaukee catcher William Contreras on the first pitch of the frame, then gave up another base hit two pitches later to left fielder Isaac Collins. The next batter, first baseman Rhys Hoskins, walked on four pitches to load the bases, and on the second pitch of the next at-bat, Freeland allowed the first two runs of the game on second baseman Brice Turang’s single.
Schaeffer noted the Brewers seemed to make an adjustment on the cutter in the inning, with those first three hits coming on the pitch. Freeland said the pitches weren’t necessarily mistakes, because “it's a pitch that I want to throw, that we want to throw and try to execute,” and they unfortunately just led to base knocks.
Freeland then got back-to-back flyouts as he tried to keep the deficit at two, but right fielder Sal Frelick singled and Chourio cleared the bases with a three-run home run. Just like that, only 21 pitches into the inning, Freeland had allowed six runs.
He could take some solace in the fact Milwaukee didn’t necessarily hit him hard. Two of the five hits that inning had exit velocities of 85.5 mph or lower (95-plus mph is considered a hard hit), and there were a pair of hits just out of the reach of diving infielders. The average exit velocity against Freeland throughout the game was 83.9 mph.
There’s a bit of a frustrating aspect to that, though, since the soft contact still led to runs.
“There's two sides to that story, right?” Freeland said. “You don't want to give up [hits on] soft contact, because in my eyes, it feels like I beat them. I executed my pitch, and they put a good enough swing on it, whether it was a broken bat or a seeing-eye single. It works out for them. At the same time, it's something where I can feel good about myself knowing that I'm getting soft contact on my pitches.
“So it's frustrating on one side, and on the other side, it's one of things that you can somewhat feel good about.”
Freeland averaged 92.8 mph on his four-seamer, up from his season average of 91.8. He even touched 95.1 mph in the first inning, his fastest pitch since a four-seamer at 95.4 mph on Sept. 8, 2018.
That might be a sign he’s feeling refreshed after a two-week break. Now, he’s just looking to get back to pitching like he did before he hit the shelf.