Kyle Freeland on verge of tears, Rockies back to worst start in MLB history

Kyle Freeland couldn’t help but nearly cry as the Colorado Rockies lost again, pleading with fans to keep believing in the purple pinstripes as they recorded their 30th loss of the season before getting seven wins.

Somehow, the day got worse for the Mile High Nine, who played again later in the day as part of a doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers and lost again. The two losses dropped the Rockies to 6-31, tied for the worst 37-game start in the history of Major League Baseball. No team has had fewer wins through 37 games, only the 1988 Baltimore Orioles have equaled the same lousy record through this point in the season.

“Keep believing in us, keep riding,” Freeland said after the first game of the doubleheader, where he got tagged for nine runs, five earned, in just three innings as part of the Rockies’ 10-2 loss to the Tigers.

#Rockies have lost five games in a row and have dropped to 6-30 (.167), a 135-loss pace.

Kyle Freeland’s message to Denver sports fans:

“Keep believing in us. Keep riding.” pic.twitter.com/OdxlPQvopz

— Patrick Lyons (@PatrickDLyons) May 8, 2025

Freeland is one of the more experienced Rockies, being part of the team for the highs of the back-to-back playoff trips in 2017 and 2018. Now he’s 0-5 with a 6.41 ERA through eight starts as the team is almost certainly headed for a third-straight 100-loss season.

In Game 2, a ball went through the webbing of the former Gold Glove-nominated Ryan McMahon’s glove. Like Game 1, which saw three errors, Game 2’s blunder led to the Tigers’ biggest inning in their win.

Coming into Thursday, Fangraphs had the Rockies projected to win 56 games, meaning they would go 50-77 the rest of the way — they’ve already narrowed that margin and will need to keep at just 12 games below .500 or better to avoid triple-digit losses. Vegas had the Rockies with a prop for 60.5 wins before the season, but has taken win total bets for Colorado off the board as we enter uncharted territory.

Just last season, the Chicago White Sox set the modern record with 121 losses, worse than the 1962 New York Mets’ 120, though they played one fewer game, so the White Sox actually had a better win percentage. The worst team in all of MLB history is the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, whose owner traded all their good players to the team he also owned in St. Louis before the season, where they went 20-13,4 then disbanded at the turn of the century. With a .157 win percentage, the Rockies are still well above the Spiders’ .130, though Colorado is well behind the modern Mets mark of a .250 win percentage. At least the Mets got to play home games in the second half of their season, due to low attendance of just 100 during an early-season doubleheader; the Spiders were forced to play 112 games on the road. Thankfully for Dick Monfort’s wallet, a few thousand showed up on Thursday and he’ll keep making gate this season despite his pathetic excuse of a baseball club.

Related

Rockies’ early lead vanishes as Guardians pull away for routFreeland leaves due to neck tightness as Rockies fall in extra inningsRockies fall to Dodgers as Ohtani launches another homer at their expenseRockies place All-Star Hunter Goodman on ILDr. Ramos & Zach Bye discuss Brenton Doyle’s ObliqueRockies pull plug on Lorenzen, designate him for assignment