Hell, or something like it

There is usually a moment when you can feel the big inning is going to happen.

A frustrated pitcher stares at the space where a hit was just given up, usually it’s a bloop single or a ball that pinches down the line. He reflects back on the pitch he threw to get him there, usually it was a pretty good one the hitter just fought off. A victim of geometry, or maybe it’s physics, or maybe it is just plain luck. The nature of it is the same, though, this is the moment when a crack forms.

The pitcher will usually show focus after this, he will stare back into the catcher with a new determination to not let the bullshit that just happened bother him. This will fool no one. Not you or any opposing hitter. Before the pitcher knows it, a few runs will have scratched across. The inning will have gotten out of hand. A frustration pitch will get thrown that ends up in the gap. Then the manager will free us of the torment all at once, taking the ball from the pitcher on the mound and ending the pain.

Yesterday, in the fourth inning, the torment never really ceased. Kyle Freeland, the Rockies homegrown and hometown Opening Day starter, never got his freedom. In the first, a Ketel Marte single was followed by a Corbin Carroll groundout and then a Yuli Gurriel home run. It felt bad, but considering the emotion of Opening Day, the rust of the winter, and how bad things felt going into the season, I don’t know if two runs was the worst thing that could’ve happened. Kyle settled in after that , retiring Christian Walker on a strikeout, Gabriel Moreno on a groundout, and used his groundball skills to quickly extinguish the Diamondbacks in the second inning.

With a Ryan McMahon RBI double, things sort of felt like they were in a normal baseball groove. The Rockies had bounced back, Freeland felt more comfortable, it was ok!

You couldn’t feel it after Geraldo Perdomo led the Diamondbacks off for the third straight inning with a hit, the big inning that is. It was a ground ball single that found the middle of the infield. Things happen. Then, Ketel Marte rifled one up the middle that newly extended Ezequiel Tovar was able to get to, but it was a tough play and he missed on his throw to second off his back. Looking back, that was probably the moment it felt like the big one. But two on, nobody out, and the middle of the Diamondbacks order up didn’t feel like it would really kill Kyle yet. Both of those hits weren’t terrible contact to give up and he was a pitcher who lived on getting double plays. One ground ball and this inning goes away as quick as it felt alive.

On a 2-2 pitch to the next hitter, Corbin Carroll, Freeland puts a slider two feet outside of the zone. Carroll never even thinks of swinging, why would he? It’s a pitch that Kyle will probably get better at throwing in two weeks. But he overthrows it here. It’s 3-2. A totally different moment. Freeland needs to induce soft contact or get a strikeout here. He throws another slider, this one is much better, it skims the zone and then lands a few inches outside. Unfortunately, Carroll expected him to go back to it. He sits on it. Thinks that if Kyle burns him with a slider in the zone then a tip of the cap but he’s not going to swing. It missed outside, it was supposed to miss. Kyle wanted to get a swing. No dice. Bases loaded.

Alright, maybe now it feels a little bad. But Kyle got beat by a good hitter and his own early season rust. Nothing terrible. Can still get out of this with minimal damage, we just need to see some outs.

He gets Yuli Gurriel to 0-2. Two pitches that Gurriel was not expecting to be fastballs, based on his late swings. He fires a sinker, down and in. Gurriel times it right though, he gets enough air on it. It’s an RBI single.

Ok, that’s where it happened. Freeland made a good pitch, he was up 0-2, he had the spot he wanted, even if it caught a little more of the zone. But it was a hit.

Frustration is here. Kyle fires a first pitch change up to Christian Walker. It’s in the deep left center gap of Chase Field. It’s 5-1. The inning is officially out of control.

By the time Bud Black comes out to free us of the torment, the Diamondbacks have scored six runs in the inning. Rookie Anthony Molina makes his Major League debut with Alek Thomas on and an 8-1 deficit. It’s a win-win for Molina, as long as he gets outs. He does not. Single, single, walk, single, single, double, sac fly, single. It’s eight more runs. Bud Black comes back out. He’s now had to come out and get more pitchers as many times as the Diamondbacks have batted completely through the lineup. It’s 16-1.

There’s a Twilight Zone episode where a former Nazi U-Boat captain has to live in a personal Hell of his own creation. He is forced to live as a victim of himself. A civilian boat captain who watches himself sink the boat. His own personal hell is to live the terrors he caused. Rod Serling tells us this is what he deserves and it does feel like justice (though the viewer didn’t see the captain as a Nazi until the very end).

I don’t know what the Rockies deserve, but that felt like a personal Hell of someone’s design. Kyle Freeland and Anthony Molina will have better days, just by the nature of probability they have to. The Rockies will probably not lose every game by 15 runs, giving up 14 in a single inning. But for that to happen on Opening Day is probably about what the narrative needed on the 2024 Rockies. A 16-1 loss to open up a season that will probably have 99 more losses is just what the doctor ordered for the Take Makers and the disgruntled fans.

That the Rockies didn’t score for the rest of the game and only had two hits in that time feels even more cruel. Sometimes these blowouts at least get a mop up guy in to give the losing team some excitement. A 16-5 loss is still horrible, but at least some of the guys you paid to see had a little fun. But the Rockies got a hit from Elias Diaz in the fourth and then a Ryan McMahon single in the ninth. That was it. Between those, no hits and two walks. Four base runners and a 15 run deficit. A Rockies offense that failed to get on base above a .310 clip while playing HALF of their games in COORS FIELD last season opened with a no-show. Everything you might have worried about before first pitch, happened just as you might have feared. If you had to squint to see a Rockies season where they weren’t one of the worst teams in the league, you squinted to see a rotation that didn’t get shelled (ope), a lineup that had competitive at-bats and got on base at a .330 clip (ope), and a bullpen with young unproven pitchers that was able to pitch above their weight class (ope).

Like I said, I don’t know what the Rockies deserve. But maybe that was it.

161 more, only way to go is up.