Freeland pitches Rockies past Kershaw, Dodgers 5-3
Kyle Freeland outpitched Clayton Kershaw, and Brendan Rodgers had three hits as the Colorado Rockies snapped a six-game skid against the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 5-3 victory Saturday night.
Freeland (6-7) followed up his seven shutout innings at Milwaukee on Monday with another solid start, allowing three runs and six hits in six innings. He struck out six without walking a batter.
In two outings since the All-Star break, the lefty is 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA.
"It's Clayton Kershaw, future Hall of Famer. Being able to match up against a caliber guy like that is always fun, and getting wins against the Dodgers is always great. I love doing it," Freeland said.
Daniel Bard gave up a two-out double in the ninth but earned his 22nd save. Bard signed a $19 million, two-year contract Saturday to stay with the Rockies through 2024.
Trea Turner homered for the Dodgers to extend his hitting streak to 17 games. He is the only player in the majors this season with two hitting streaks of 15 or more games.
Kershaw (7-3) was tagged for the second time this season in Denver. In two outings here he has allowed nine earned runs over 9 1/3 innings. He is 11-8 with a 4.82 ERA in 26 career starts at Coors Field.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner gave up five runs - three earned - in 5 1/3 innings.
Freeland showed emotion on his last pitch of the game when Max Muncy lined a ball to right-center that Randal Grichuk tracked down for the final out of the sixth.
"Midway I kind of had a feeling that I was going to be able to catch it," Grichuk said. "I just didn't know if I was going to slam into the wall or if I was going catch it before. Luckily it died a little bit and I caught it before crashing into the wall."
Colorado took its first lead of the series in the first inning when Muncy's error at third base let in one run and led to another that put the Rockies ahead 2-1.
Turner hit a solo homer in a two-run third, his 16th, but Colorado rallied in the sixth. Grichuk followed singles from Rodgers and José Iglesias with a two-run triple and scored on a single by Elías Díaz that ended Kershaw's night.
Grichuk and Iglesias had two hits each, and Grichuk finished with three RBIs.
"It was good to see Randal get some really hard contact," Rockies manager Bud Black said.
