Rockies fritter away chance for Freeland’s first 2025 win, fall to 8-39

DENVER — Rockies Report, Game 47:

ROCKIES BOTTOM LINE: Alec Bohm’s shot in the top of the eighth inning Monday night just kept carrying.

Going … going … going … away towards the evergreens beyond the center-field fence.

Bohm turned on a 2-1 Seth Halvorsen slider that hung in the strike zone, a pitch that followed a pair of fastballs that soared into triple digits on the radar gun.

Going … going … going …

With every foot it flew into the night, Kyle Freeland’s first win of this wretched 2025 season, his first win since last September, his first win in 13 starts, sailed away.

Going … going … going …

And finally, after crashing into the center-field wall, Brenton Doyle was left to sit on the warning track, a picture of forlorn misery, pondering yet another cruel turn of fortune in the Rockies’ season of despair.

The ball … and Freeland’s win with it, what would have been his first of the season, his first in 13 starts dating back to last September …

Gone.

Now we’re rockin’ and rollin! pic.twitter.com/9km9YO7qUJ

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) May 20, 2025

Freeland left after 5 1/3 innings with a 2-1 lead.

The Rockies got there thanks not only to Freeland’s work, but that of shortstop Ezequiel Tovar. After pounding out five hits in Saturday’s 14-12 win, he stayed hot, delivering a first-inning solo home run and a third-inning, two-out RBI single that scored Jordan Beck from second base.

➕1⃣ pic.twitter.com/Z0LeyPx6sL

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) May 20, 2025

Doyle, shifted to the No. 5 spot after a conversation last week with interim manager Warren Schaeffer, tacked on a third run in the sixth inning, drilling a line drive that bounced over the left-center field wall for a ground-rule double, scoring Michael Toglia from second.

Philadelphia’s Bryce Harper pulled his team back within one in the seventh with a sacrifice fly that scored Trea Turner from third following Jake Bird’s throwing error that prevented a 1-4-3 double play, but Bird subsequently induced a 4-6-3 double play to prevent further damage.

When the eighth inning began, Freeland was still in line for the win.

And then, Halvorsen — who had enjoyed a solid season to date, with peripherals in line with his baseline metrics — allowed a leadoff single to Nick Castellanos, struck out J.T. Realmuto and then put a slider in the wrong spot.

More damage followed; the Phillies piled on two more runs in the eighth. In the ninth inning, Kyle Schwarber clobbered a Scott Alexander offering, blasting it 466 feet off the third deck above left field.

Kyle Schwarber sends career homer No. 3️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ WAY outta here 🤯 pic.twitter.com/lbfRhRw9Px

— MLB (@MLB) May 20, 2025

Edmundo Sosa subsequently fired a two-run shot over the left-field fence for the final margin.

The final was 9-3, and another loss landed on the Rockies’ ledger, this one in front of an announced 23,487 onlookers.

Colorado is 8-39.

ROCKIES STARTER’S REPORT

Freeland allowed baserunners, but for most of the night deftly navigated his way out of trouble. Eight Phillies reached base at his expense — six hits, two walks — and he failed to log a clean inning, but he limited the damage to just one run thanks to solid command and clean defense.

In the third inning, Freeland benefitted from the Phillies playing Charlie Messaround on the basepaths. Turner traipsed too far off third base and Freeland pounced with a quick pickoff move, leading to Turner being caught in a 1-3-6 rundown.

In the fifth, Philadelphia finally got to him when Turner dropped a triple into the right-field corner, after which Harper laced an opposite-field single to left, slicing Colorado’s lead in half.

But Harper advanced no further, as Freeland froze Kyle Schwarber with a fastball on the outside half of the plate for the second out, then got Castellanos to fly out to Tyler Freeman in right field to cap the damage at a single run.

It looked like it would be Freeland’s first win since Sept. 8 of last year … until it wasn’t.

BITS AND PIECES

IT WAS DECIDED FOR THE ROCKIES WHEN: Turner piled on a two-out, two-RBI double in the eighth inning, pushing Philadelphia’s advantage to 6-3.


ROCKIES NUMBER TO NOTE: .571 — Tovar’s batting average since returning from the injured list last Friday.

WHAT’S NEXT: Antonio Senzatela looks to rebound after allowing 10 combined hits and walks in 4 2/3 innings during each of his last two starts in the second game of the series. First pitch at Coors Field is at 6:40 p.m. MDT.

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