Rockies blasted again as Dodgers rock Freeland, sending his ERA over 8

Rockies Report, Game 56:

ROCKIES BOTTOM LINE: Kyle Freeland was rocked early and often over his four innings of work, and Zach Agnos could do nothing to stop the bleeding as the Dodgers throttled the Rockies 15-6 at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday night.

Freeland and Agnos combined to allow five home runs — three from Freeland, two from Agnos — as the Dodgers amassed 17 hits. Six Los Angeles batters had at least two hits; remarkably, none of them were named Shohei Ohtani, who went 0-for-2 before leaving after he was plunked.

Colorado trailed 15-1 before the Dodgers decided to embarrass the Rockies by sending infielder Miguel Rojas onto the field with a lead. Rojas threw a series of eephus pitches in the range of 40-45 miles per hour, allowing the Rox to bat around and amass five runs — including a solo homer by Brett Sullivan and a three-run blast by Kyle Karros — before Rojas finally got out of the game.

Until Rojas took the mound, Colorado’s offense accomplished little. Eric Lauer confounded the Rockies for six innings in his Dodgers debut, limiting them to a single run via Hunter Goodman’s second-inning homer to right-center field to lead off the second inning. Los Angeles acquired him on May 17 from the Toronto Blue Jays after they designated him for assignment.

The loss was the seventh in the Rockies’ last eight games. While three of them were one-run defeats, three were floggings by eight or more runs: 10-0 against Texas a week ago and 9-1 at Arizona on Sunday before Tuesday’s thumping.

In each of those blowouts — including Tuesday — catcher Brett Sullivan tossed an inning of mop-up duty. He has yet to allow a run in his mound appearances this season.

Tuesday’s defeat sealed the Rockies’ ninth-consecutive series loss and dropped them to 20-36.

ROCKIES STARTER’S REPORT

It was ugly for Freeland. After retiring the first two Dodgers he faced, he gave up a comebacker single to Freddie Freeman, and then three pitches later, his 91-MPH fastball to Mookie Betts settled over the inside third of the plate, and Betts crushed it over the center-field wall to put the Dodgers in front to stay.

“Kyle probably wasn’t as sharp as he’d like there, probably missed some spots that he’d like to have back,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said.

“Tough to find location for me right now, going through some things,” Freeland told media after the game. “But they capitalized on every single mistake that I made — and I made a lot of mistakes tonight.”

Freeland is enduring one of the worst stretches of his career. His 8.08 ERA is the worst among 108 MLB pitchers with at least nine starts; Michael Lorenzen’s 7.21 ERA is the second-worst.

BITS AND PIECES

IT WAS DECIDED FOR THE ROCKIES WHEN: Los Angeles racked up four runs in the fourth inning, capitalizing off a hit batter and a wild pitch to go along with a pair of doubles and a single.

NUMBER TO NOTE: 3.71 — Freeland’s HR/9 rate since he returned from the injured list late last month.

WHAT’S NEXT: A duel of Japanese pitchers: Colorado’s Tomoyuki Sugano and Ohtani, the Dodgers’ four-time MVP. First pitch in Wednesday night’s series and road-trip finale is at 8:10 p.m. MDT.

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