Photo via @Rockies/X
Eli Whitney | August 2, 2026
Kyle Freeland had made 250 starts without finishing one. On the second-hottest afternoon in Coors Field history, he finally got the ball for the ninth inning — and the noise that greeted him is the part he says he’ll keep.
Freeland threw the first complete game of his career Sunday, a five-hit, one-run masterpiece with eight strikeouts and two walks in an 8-1 win that completed a sweep of the Kansas City Royals. He entered the day as one of only two pitchers in major league history with at least 250 starts and no complete games. It was the first by a Rockies starter since Chad Kuhl in June 2022.
“I’ve only been out there, I think, one other time in the ninth, and that was my near no-hitter in 2017,” Freeland said. “To be able to take the ball in the ninth inning and have confidence going out to the mound, trying to do something special — it was awesome.”
Freeland tried to avoid checking his pitch count.
“I felt good when I got done with the seventh. Still didn’t look at my pitch count, so I was just going to continue to go.”
Warren Schaeffer had made up his mind well before the ninth inning. The manager has carried a specific regret since last season, when he pulled Freeland from a low-pitch-count game he could have finished.
“That has always been fresh in my mind,” Schaeffer said. “If that opportunity came around again, I was going to let him finish that thing. That is so incredibly important to him, and something he absolutely deserves, doing what he’s done for this organization for a long time.”
Even the ninth inning traffic — a Salvador Perez double and a Starling Marte single — didn’t move him.
“At that point it’s all about pitch count and injury. And again, I know him. If [Tyler] Tolbert got on there, I was going to go out and ask him if his arm was going to fall off, and he’d be honest with me.”
The conditions made it harder. First pitch registered 99 degrees, the second-hottest in ballpark history, and Freeland spent his between-innings breaks under the dugout with a bucket of ammonia on ice and cold towels.
“The heat definitely played a factor,” he said. “Trying to minimize the amount of time out on the field, especially with the guys behind you — get them off their feet and back in the dugout in some shade.”
Brett Sullivan matched him inning for inning, catching the first complete game of his own career and delivering two doubles and two RBI.
“I don’t know if he missed over the middle of the plate all night,” Sullivan said. “He made my job super easy.”
The ninth got to him.
“I was getting chills back there. Just really wanted it for him. I know he wanted it — an honor to be a part of it.”
His near-miss trivia is a good one: the closest he’d come before was Seth Lugo going 8.2 with San Diego, and Lugo happened to be the opposing starter Sunday.
The offense broke it open in the sixth against Aaron Bummer, sending 10 to the plate for six runs. Sullivan’s two-run double started it, Jake McCarthy followed with a three-run homer — his 11th — and TJ Rumfield capped it with an RBI double after Cole Carrigg stole second and third. Carrigg finished 3-for-4 with a double and two steals.
Freeland credited that inning with freeing him up.
“Being able to lift that stress off my shoulders with a big crooked number, that allowed me to free up on the mound and continue in attack mode,” he said.
Schaeffer, asked what Freeland has meant to him, didn’t hedge.
“He’s been here for such a long time, he’s from Colorado, and he’s been an enormous presence in the clubhouse — through the Rockies’ winning days and through this lull. He’s been a constant leader through thick and thin, which is the test of a real leader. Can you lead in distress? And he has. He’s meant the world to me as a first-time manager.”
None of it happened in a vacuum. The deadline arrives Monday, and Freeland acknowledged what was sitting in the back of his mind when he told the crowd he loved them.
“There’s that thought of this could potentially be my last one here at home. We’ll see in the next 24 hours how all unfolds,” he said. “To be able to hear them right when I popped out there for the ninth — the excitement from them meant the world. Gave me a jolt of energy. I’ll be able to hold on to that one for a really long time.”
The sweep was Colorado’s third of the year and just the second of Kansas City in franchise history. At 45-67, the Rockies have already passed last season’s win total with two months left — a fact Schaeffer refused to celebrate pregame.
“We have goals on this team much higher than winning 44 games,” he said. “It’s very good, but we’re not anywhere close to where we want to be, and everyone in this clubhouse knows it.”
Leave a Reply