Kyle Freeland barked, but the Rockies didn’t have enough bite.
Falling behind 2-0 and losing Freeland to a self-inflicted ejection eight pitches into his start, the Rockies never fully recovered Tuesday in a 7-4 loss to San Francisco — their 100th of the year. That makes Colorado the first franchise since the 2011-13 Houston Astros to lose 100 games in three consecutive seasons.
With dozens of dogs among an announced Coors Field attendance of 18,934, the Giants tagged their hosts with four home runs, scoring all of their runs via the long ball. None lived up to the drama of the first. After Freeland served up a towering two-run shot to Rafael Devers two batters into the game, the Rockies lefty interrupted Devers’ slow home run trot, angrily urging him to hurry it up.
Devers hadn’t even reached first base yet. His freshly flipped bat barely had any time to cool down on the grass before tempers heated up around it. Devers shouted back at Freeland and abandoned the base paths. Dugouts and bullpens emptied.
What followed probably wouldn’t qualify as a brawl according to the old-school definition of the word — but it did include a series of shoves, instigated by Giants first baseman Matt Chapman on Freeland. Then it was a mess of hands indistinguishable from one another. In the end, Freeland, Chapman and Giants shortstop Willy Adames (responsible for a second mini-skirmish) were thrown out, and Devers was sent back to first base to belatedly finish his home run trot while impromptu long reliever Antonio Senzatela warmed up.
The Rockies stayed within arm’s reach all night but couldn’t overcome the initial blow from Devers. Senzatela almost made it through five scoreless innings, only to surrender a two-out solo homer to Casey Schmitt, who entered the game to replace the ejected Adames. Meanwhile for the Giants, Devers went hitless the rest of the night after moving into Chapman’s spot at third base — the position where Devers was ironically the source of much drama in Boston earlier this year, leading to the trade to San Francisco.
Patrick Bailey and Wilmer Flores added home runs for the visitors before the end of the night. It was just enough insurance to nullify a homer from Colorado catcher Hunter Goodman. The Rockies left six on base and went 2 for 8 with runners in scoring position.
With 23 contests remaining, they still need three wins to pass the 2024 White Sox and avoid the all-time single-season losses record. They need nine wins to avoid the 115-loss club, which consists of six teams in the modern era.