Denver’s hometown pitcher melted down at Coors Field — in doing so, he became the perfect face of the Colorado Rockies, who can’t stop embarrassing themselves.
Before recording an out, Freeland got tagged by Rafael Devers — then made things worse by jawing at him until it turned into a fracas. Devers sent a lazy 83 mph sweeper 397 feet over the fence for a two-run shot. The slugger admired his blast, and now on the hook for the club’s third 100-loss season in a row, the 32-year-old starter shouted at the hitter until there was a scuffle. Freeland, along with two Giants, got ejected for the melee just minutes into Tuesday’s 7-4 loss.
Freeland allowed two hits and two runs before leaving with just eight pitches thrown. He’s now allowed the fourth-most hits in Major League Baseball this season and his 5.41 ERA is fifth-worst among the 71 pitchers with at least 130 innings pitched in 2025.
The Rockies rewarded Freeland with a five-year, $64.5 million deal. A contract that looked smart in 2022, the last time he was an above-average pitcher and the team avoided triple-digit losses. Since then, both have spiraled.
Freeland is third to just his teammate Antonio Senzatela and Washington’s Mitchell Parker in losses, picking up his 14th against the Giants. However, only former teammate Tyler Anderson has fewer wins (three) with as many innings pitched as Freeland does this year.
It’s easy to see why Freeland was frustrated enough at Devers’ trot. He is the eighth-best Rockie and sixth-best player from Colorado, according to WAR. He’s pitched in huge games and done well for Colorado in the past. So to be here, taking loss after loss while being largely ineffective must be mindboggling even if it’s a threepeat.
But this shouldn’t be about making excuses for the highest-paid pitcher in the Rockies’ rotation; rather, this should be a screaming indictment of both Freeland’s fall and the Rockies’ pathetic state
On the Dodgers, a pitcher with Freeland’s numbers would’ve been gone years ago. The Rockies, meanwhile, are paying him to front a rotation that’s carried them to a seventh straight losing season. Los Angeles hasn’t had a pitcher this bad in over a decade; Colorado sends one to the mound twice or three times a week.
To grasp how far Freeland has fallen — and how low the Rockies’ standards are — consider this: the Dodgers haven’t tolerated a pitcher with a strikeout rate this bad since 2015. They haven’t had a pitcher with as many losses as Freeland in 2025 since 2011.
Worst of all? Since 1993, the Rockies have trotted out 28 pitchers with an ERA of 5.25 or worse while logging at least 130 innings. The Dodgers, since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, have had exactly one (Carlos Perez in 2000). In Denver, this kind of failure is tolerated and even re-signed; in Los Angeles, it’s a historical anomaly. In fact, both Senzatela and German Marquez will also join Freeland at that horrid ERA mark once they throw a few more innings.
The whole operation at 20th and Blake is embarrassing, as is what Freeland did on Tuesday. The video is below.
Something you don’t see every day in the Giants vs. Rockies game.
Rafael Devers hits a home run off of Kyle Freeland. Freeland yells at Devers for staring at the home run and the benches cleared as Devers was running the bases.
Dave Flemming and Javier Lopez had the call. pic.twitter.com/wn6JudUYTE
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 3, 2025
The result of the game confirmed the third-straight 100-loss campaign by the Rockies, who have just 39 wins after Labor Day. For reference, that’s more triple-digit loss seasons in the last three years than the Dodgers have in 142 years of pro baseball.
To add insult to injury, it was Logan Webb, one of just three pitchers in MLB to allow more hits than Freeland this year, who was the most outspoken of Freeland’s fit.
“I mean, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened before with that guy, so,” Webb said after the game. “Just kinda runs his mouth a lot of times. Rafi got him good.”
When opposing pitchers start clowning you, you’ve hit rock bottom. Actually, scratch that — with the Rockies, there’s never a bottom.
Freeland probably deserved the few shoves he got, and so did the players who shoved him deserved to be ejected.
“I just found it extremely disrespectful to show me up like that in the first inning after hitting a home run, standing there watching it, taking your sweet time getting down to first base,” Freeland said. “Being disrespected like that, I felt there was a need to say something to [Devers] and let him know that that disrespected me and you showed me up and I don’t respect you doing that, coming into my ballpark and doing that to me.”
Cool, man. I get that you think you feel disrespected, but respect is earned.
Do you or your ballclub really deserve respect at this point? The club isn’t even respected by the Mile High City. A lousy crowd of 18,000 or so showed up to the game. The team sold out on Saturday when Cubs fans and a beer event took over the park. Because everyone in Colorado, except the local most connected to the Rockies, has come to recognize Coors Field as a bar that features the transplants’ favorite stars. Am I being too harsh? Just look at a Rockies commercial or ticketing email where they show highlights of Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts coming to town to sell the Coors Field Rooftop cover fee.
Coors Field is a party for LoDo.
Coors Field is a launching pad for opposing hitters.
Coors Field is for everyone but the Rockies.
The stadium remains a playground for the visitors. It’s little more than an usloved riddle for the Rockies rather than the fortress it should be. And Freeland, once a symbol of hope at altitude, now feels like a relic of better days. He truly was once one of the coolest stories for a scrappy team that had seemingly finally figured out pitching in the mountains. That was nearly a decade ago. The Rockies have eroded since. Freeland isn’t the strong lefty making up a nasty rotation leading Colorado to the postseason. Freeland is a fossil, and like their stupid dinosaur mascot, so too are the Rockies.
Freeland’s tantrum was embarrassing, but it’s just a microcosm. The real disease is the Monforts, who employ and promote the geniuses who assembled this joke of a team.
Freeland wants respect. The Rockies want it, too. But they’ve earned only mockery. With a third-straight 100-loss season, that’s all they’ll get from Denver, the Dodgers and even the Giants, as well as the rest of baseball.
