Rockies' rookie Freeland looks to sink Dodgers

LOS ANGELES -- Any West Coast baseball fan scanning the summer schedule would not have isolated the three-game series starting Friday between the visiting Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers as must-see MLB.

The Rockies had a new manager, Bud Black, who had washed out as the manager of the Padres, with two winning seasons in eight-plus seasons. They had a lot of hitters but their pitching was undistinguished, as usual, for a team that plays home games at high altitude.

Yet here they are, a few weeks away from the All-Star break, and they're keeping pace with the Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks in a scorching three-way division race that seemingly will crown one division champ and send the two other teams to a wild-card playoff.

Wild indeed. The Rockies have done it with four rookies in their rotation, most notably Friday's starter, left-hander Kyle Freeland. A former 2014 first-round choice (eighth pick overall), Freeland has emerged as the poised ace of the rotation in his first major league season, going 8-4 with a 3.42 ERA. He has allowed two runs or fewer in eight of his starts and has made a quality start in 10 of 14. He's getting batters to hit the ball on the ground at about a 60 percent rate, a trait management would certainly want playing at altitude in Denver.

In one of his recent wins, he used his sinker for 15 ground-ball outs in the 22 outs he notched.

"Being a sinker-heavy pitcher, it plays into my game," Freeland told the Denver Post. "I can go back-to-back-to-back sinkers and have a good chance of getting a ground ball.

"I don't go after strikeouts. You go for strikeouts when you can. Bottom of the order, nobody on, 1-2 count, you can bounce one in the dirt and try to get him to chase. But my game throughout the season is to throw sinkers and get ground balls."

The grounders also translate into fewer home runs. He has allowed only eight in a season where the home run is king. Freeland faced the Dodgers twice in April, going 1-0 with a 1.80 ERA, and the Rockies won both games.

The Dodgers are taking the Rockies seriously. They will throw the heart of their rotation at them: Alex Wood (7-0, 1.90) on Friday, Clayton Kershaw (10-2, 2.61) on Saturday and Brandon McCarthy (6-3, 2.87) on Sunday.

Wood has made seven appearances against the Rockies, with a 3-2 record and 5.59 ERA. In his most recent showdown, he allowed five hits and a walk in six innings. In his last 10 starts, he's 6-0 with a 2.08 and 0.99 WHIP.

"I think it's a good thing," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said about the division race. "(I don't) think our team needs incentive to continue to keep going and stay focused; but, when you have teams in your division that you're going to see nine more times and you're playing for the division (title) and wild card, it's good for us.

"It's going to be a fun weekend."