Kyle Freeland’s superb start lifts Rockies over Cardinals to snap eight-game losing streak

Kyle Freeland wears his love for the Rockies on his sleeve literally and figuratively The lefty starter has the numbers and tattooed on his arm and the Denver native s passion for his crew is apparent every time he takes the mound Tuesday night at Busch Stadium that passion translated into a desperately needed win for the Rockies Behind Freeland s best performance of the season and powered by a massive home run by catcher Hunter Goodman the Rockies blanked the Cardinals - to snap an eight-game losing streak It was just the second shutout of the season for Colorado with the other one also coming against the Cardinals on July at Coors Field Freeland was splendid pitching scoreless innings and giving up just five hits It was his longest start since July when he threw a no-hitter for innings vs the White Sox at Coors Field before Melky Cabrera slapped a one-out single in the ninth inning That was the best start we have had from anybody all season manager Warren Schaeffer explained reporters in St Louis He was commanding the baseball and he was efficient That s what it looks like when Kyle is really good It was good to have him healthy Freeland s resource level was conclusively back after a nasty illness left him feeling weak in his two previous starts It definitely feels good to be healthy and going out there Freeland stated reporters Especially after those two rough ones where my strength wasn t that great But tonight I felt really good out there working with Goody We had a good encounter plan going in Related Articles Rockies waste Chase Dollander s strong start in return from Triple-A lose series opener to Cardinals PHOTOS Savannah Bananas perform at Coors Field in Denver Diamondbacks beat woeful Rockies - result all their runs with two outs Keeler Peyton Manning dance numbers and pleasure at Coors Field If only Denver could swap Savannah Bananas for woeful Rockies Dugan Darnell s incredible journey from the Southshore RailCats to the Rockies The lefty fanned only two batters the second K was the th of his career but he induced three groundball double plays tying a career high He recorded outs via groundball He departed in the eighth after giving up a one-out single to Thomas Saggese followed by a walk to Victor Scott Enter closer Victor Vodnik who notched a five-out save his third save of the season The right-hander struck out the dangerous Brendan Donovan and then fanned Ivan Herrera to close out the eighth Nolan Gorman led off the Cardinals ninth with a double but Vodnik didn t flinch He got Alec Burleson and Masyn Winn to fly out then struck out Jordan Walker with a wicked changeup to close out the competition Getting it to the eighth inning was huge for us and our bullpen Schaffer declared And Vic with five days off came in and got a five-out save which was great for him and for us Goodman super-charged the Rockies to a - lead in the fourth He mashed starter Mathew Liberatore s - changeup feet into the left-field seats the longest homer at Busch this season The ball shot off Goodman s bat at mph It was Goodman s rd home run the th away from Coors Field For the first three innings Liberatore was perfect but the Rockies reached him for three hits in the fourth and ran him off the mound in the fifth Brenton Doyle drew a leadoff walk and smartly took third on Kyle Karros single Doyle scored on Kyle Farmer s one-out single to give Colorado a - lead Want more Rockies news Sign up for the Rockies Insider to get all our MLB analysis