CHICAGO _ Way up in Section 501 at Wrigley Field, they had to Google his name. This doesn't happen here, not to the 95-win Cubbies. Not in a pitcher's first career postseason start in front of 41,649 wackos who know what elite pitching looks like.
First, it's Kyle. Kyle Freeland. Goes by "Free" with the beer league softball team he coaches over at the Kennedy Ballfields. And on a night when an October wind swirled off Lake Michigan, Freeland delivered a message from Colorado with love: these ain't your brother's Rockies.
They're Kylerado's.
The Rockies learned plenty Tuesday night in a National League wild-card game against the Cubs. At the top of the list was the sure-as-shootin' arrival of a staff ace. Freeland pitched 6 2/3 innings, shut down the Cubs and quieted a frantic crowd. Eighty-two pitches. Two hits. No runs. A reading on the fear meter of zero.
The Rockies defeated the Cubs, 2-1, in 13 innings.
"He's built for this," manager Bud Black said prior to first pitch of Freeland, whose 6 2/3 innings of scoreless ball included two hits on 82 pitches and zero reading on the fear meter.
The Rockies found their ace, and they only needed to look down a few miles down Interstate 25. Freeland out-Lester'ed Jon Lester, one of the postseason greats, a veteran of this moment with 22 playoff starts to his name. The Rockies and his home state couldn't have asked for more.
His coach at Thomas Jefferson, Tory Humphrey, said Tuesday as Freeland rolled into the sixth inning: "So awesome to watch. Kyle's a bulldog and has no fear. (He's) always been that way."
The question with the Rockies has forever and always concerned starting pitching. In a season of twists, turns, quiet lineups and up-and-down bullpen work, the constant was starting pitching. With Freeland and 23-year-old German Marquez anchoring the staff, the Rockies put themselves in position to win at Wrigley. They took a 1-0 lead into the eighth inning.
But MVP candidate Javier Baez smoked an RBI double to the left-field wall, scoring Terrance Gore and sending Wrigley into hysterics. Empty plastic cups, previously filled with see-through beer, rained down just behind Charlie Blackmon in center.
The Rockies won 15 of Freeland's 17 starts to close the season. Prior to first pitch on Tuesday, star third baseman Nolan Arenado said there would no worries in the Rockies clubhouse.
"No sleep, a lot of sleep, it doesn't matter," Arenado said of the Rockies, who took a late flight from a division tiebreaker loss in Los Angeles to reach Chicago.
And the Rockies left with a clear vision of what's to come. Freeland on the mound in a playoff game.
"Isn't that great?" Black said.
