Freeland 'set the tone' during 'outstanding' Opening Day vs. Rays

TAMPA -- Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland’s Friday afternoon was a complete reversal of last year’s opener.

Freeland accomplished the 14th Opening Day quality start in club history -- and became the first to do it twice -- with six scoreless innings, two hits and seven strikeouts in a 3-2 loss to the Rays. The effectiveness of his pitch mix -- which includes a new downward-breaking slider -- was a far cry from last year, when he lasted 2 1/3 innings and gave up a career-high 10 runs in a season-opening loss to the Diamondbacks.

“Everything’s been working coming out of camp,” Freeland said. “I’m very happy with the adjustments I made and some of the additions to the mix that we’ve made over the spring. I’m very happy with where I’m at to start the season.”

The message from Freeland and manager Bud Black was, while it was a start comparable with few Opening Day starts in the Rockies’ 33-season history, it was just a start.

Unlike Mike Hampton in 2001 against the Cardinals at Coors Field and Kyle Kendrick in 2015 at Milwaukee, Freeland’s scoreless quality start in the opener at George M. Steinbrenner Field didn’t result in a victory for him.

Or for the Rockies.

The Rays’ two-run seventh against Tyler Kinley erased the Rockies’ lead. Kameron Misner led off the bottom of the ninth with his first Major League home run, off Victor Vodnik, for a walk-off victory.

The Rockies hope Freeland’s performance Friday is a sign for the next 30 or so starts. In fact, protecting Freeland’s next starts was part of the reason Black removed him before the seventh, after just 67 pitches.

The decision is second-guessable. But the two most closely involved -- Black and Freeland -- felt it was best, even after the events that followed.

“It’s early,” Black said. “Kyle threw 75 pitches in Spring Training. He went five innings in Spring Training. He hadn’t gone seven. That was the main thought behind it, and it’s a long year.”

After the sixth, Freeland had an honest conversation with Black, who has managed him from his first Major League pitch in 2017.

“I know the pitch count was low, but you’ve got to think about the up-downs [breaks between the innings] and the innings,” Freeland said. “It was the second time I’ve touched six innings this year.

“So we had a conversation. I told him I was getting a little winded. I’ve said in the past that you’ve got to have a good rapport with your manager and let him know how you’re feeling and what you want to do.”

Logic backed the decision to go with Kinley. After struggling since undergoing right elbow flexor tendon surgery in 2022, Kinley developed a curve and increased use of a changeup to go with a hard slider and a fastball, and he impressed with eight scoreless Spring Training outings. Bad counts and less-than-solid hits felled him Friday.

Kinley expects more chances to follow excellent Freeland outings.

“That was outstanding,” Kinley said. “The last time I saw Kyle throw like that on Opening Day, I was with the Marlins in '19, and he came to Miami [seven innings, two hits, one run in a 6-3 Rockies victory].”

However this one ended, Freeland and the Rockies believe more good than bad will happen if he pitches as he did on Friday.

“He set the tone in Game 1,” Black said. “Now, hopefully, the other starters can follow suit.”

Freeland had a 6.16 Spring Training ERA, but he nailed the important stuff. Through his career, Freeland has won on a fastball high and inside to right-handers, a slider with tight, horizontal movement, plus a curveball and a changeup to vary the speeds. The hard slider with dramatic downward movement, he felt, would complete his mix this season.

On Friday, Freeland said he vetoed just two pitches from Hunter Goodman, who finished his rookie year of 2024 catching frequently. Goodman said Freeland executed whatever he wanted.

“I liked the way he controlled the zone, attacking hitters early with a bunch of different pitches,” said Goodman, who celebrated his start with a single and a double. “He was throwing fastballs in and out. Being able to do that, you keep hitters off balance.”

Freeland's strikeout rate on Friday was higher than the 6.7 per nine innings of his previous eight seasons. As long as he is filling the zone the way he did against the Rays, he’s fine even when hitters make contact.

“We had everything going today from the jump,” he said.