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There were plenty of baserunners to go around for both sides in Las Vegas on Saturday night, with the Colorado Rockies and Athletics combining for 19 hits. While the Rockies had their chances, another rough outing from Kyle Freeland didn’t help the cause, and they were never able to stay ahead of the A’s.

The Rockies losing streak grows to three games as they drop the series.

Freeland falls behind early again, but rebounds

The first inning has not been kind to Freeland on the season.

Coming into tonight’s game, he carried a 9.00 ERA with 11 runs and 13 hits surrendered in 11 first innings pitched. He’s only been worse in third innings (11.45 ERA, 14 runs, 24 hits).

That trend continued with another rough game start for K-Free. He secured the first out against Colby Thomas leading off, forcing him to a grounder. After a Nick Kurtz single and a Shea Langeliers double, Freeland got a strikeout for out number two. With those two outs and runners on second and third, Freeland allowed a two-run single to Jacob Wilson to give the Athletics an early lead.

Things got better from there — for a bit, anyway — as Freeland settled in over the next couple innings. Aside from a double in the second inning, Freeland worked through the second and third with relative ease. He notched another strikeout in the second and logged a 1-2-3 third.

Rockies claw back in and a slew of triples bounce Estes

For their part, the Rockies offense chipped away at the A’s leads. After a quiet first and second inning, the Rockies initially broke through in the third with a Brett Sullivan solo home run to right field, cutting the lead to 2-1.

TJ Rumfield doubled to second to lead off the fourth inning. He was brought home a few batters later on a Troy Johnston single. Johnston was thrown out trying to stretch it into a two-bagger, but got the job done and tied the game at 2-2.

That tie wouldn’t last long. In the bottom of the inning, Henry Bolte singled, and a Zack Gelof dinger put the Athletics back ahead, 4-2.

The rollercoaster, or maybe seesaw, continued with the Rockies bats getting to work in the fifth inning. Kyle Karros got his first career triple to start the momentum. Sullivan scored him on a fly ball to right to bring the Rockies within a run. Another triple from Sterlin Thompson would chase Estes, with José Suarez coming in to relieve him.

Before being called up and given the start in tonight’s game, Estes was 2-6 in 12 starts with a 5.95 for the Las Vegas Aviators in triple-A. Getting the start in familiar surroundings at the Aviators’ home, Estes made it 4.1 innings giving up five hits, four runs (including the homer to Sullivan), and four strikeouts.

By the end of the inning, the Rockies took a 5-4 lead after Thompson made it home on a passed ball and an Edouard Julien double scored Rumfield.

Things get rocky for the Rockies in the sixth

Freeland’s up and down night continued. After a 1-2-3 bottom of the fifth, Freeland would again let the lead slip away in the sixth inning. Freeland gave up a single to Alika Wiliams that brought Gelof home from second to tie things up again at 5-5.

Following that, Freeland was pulled for Jaden Hill. Freeland’s day ended after 5.2 innings, giving up a whopping 10 hits and six runs, with four strikeouts. His ERA jumped up to 7.98 after this start. Manager Warren Schaeffer noted that he “thought Kyle battled well tonight. Kyle was throwing the ball very well; the pen is a little light at the moment. He did a great job taking it to 95 pitches.”

Of those 95, he relied primarily on his four-seam fastball throughout, but leaned heavily on his cutter for his third time through the order. The A’s were able to get their bats on his cutter, though, with four of their 10 hits against Freeland coming off of that pitch.

Hill, who was so reliable to start the year, would unfortunately log another off night. On a 1-1 count with two outs, Hill surrendered a double to Tyler Soderstrom that gave the A’s a 6-5 lead on a Williams run. Hill intentionally walked Kurtz, walked Langeliers to load the bases, and hit Carlos Cortes with a pitch to move a runner home and extend the lead to 7-5.

Steady as she goes

Despite lots of early lead changes, the runs dried up in the later innings. The Rockies needed a couple pitchers to make it through the bottom of the seventh. Seth Halvorsen replaced Hill to start the inning, getting the first two outs but allowing Gelof to board second on a fielding error. After Williams walked and Gelof stole third, the Rockies looked to Juan Mejia to get the final out. That he did, as Soderstrom grounded to the mound. Neither side mustered much of anything in the eighth.

The Rockies went out with a dud. They only managed one hit from the fifth inning on and were blanked in the ninth when Elvis Alvarado entered to close things out for the A’s. Alvarado struck Karros out on four pitches, mixing sliders and a sinker, ultimately getting him out on the former. Sullivan battled for a good at-bat, but met the same fate, striking out after 10 pitches. Thompson grounded out towards first to put the game to bed.

Schaeffer pointed to “sloppy baseball” being the reason for tonight’s loss. He noted that the team “had the chance to get out of innings, chance to win the game. But sloppy baseball prevented that from happening.”

Up Next

The Sin City series comes to a close with a Sunday afternoon matchup. First pitch is set for 1:05 p.m. MDT at Las Vegas Ballpark.

Tomoyuki Sugano (6-4, 4.08 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Rockies, while the Athletics will turn to Jeffrey Springs (3-6, 4.68 ERA).

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For anyone whose perspective is “Expect the Worst” as a Cleveland sports fan, tonight must have come as no surprise as Jose Ramirez fractured his left hamate.

It’s unclear if Jose will get surgery or wait for the situation to heal, but somewhere between 4-8 weeks is the recovery time and a hitter’s power can be sapped for a while afterwards. Jose was on his way to a 60-steal season and looking to take the franchise lead in home runs, so, even though his numbers looked pedestrian compared to his career norms, this is about as big a blow as the Guardians can sustain, short of a season-ending injury to Ramirez (God-forbid).

From the looks of Columbus’ lineup activities, Gabriel Arias will be called up and probably take Jose’s place as the primary third baseman (spelled occasionally by Daniel Schneemann). The good news is that Arias should be a great defensive replacement. The bad news is that no one is Jose Ramirez offensively and Arias is very likely to be at least a 30 wRC+ drop from Jose’s expected output. On the positive side, the next 4-8 weeks should finally put a bow on the Arias experience for the Guardians; he will either hit enough to be a league average hitter or they can DFA him when Jose returns.

Chase DeLauter was also removed after crashing into a wall with what was described as a rib confusion. CJ Kayfus being removed from the Columbus game late makes me suspect this may end up being an IL stint. Hopefully, just a 15-day variety, but that’s definitely a blow. I see folks asking for George Valera or Kahlil Watson. I would have chosen Valera, myself, but Kayfus’s September from last year should not be forgotten where he put up a 126 wRC+. He can take a walk and he’s got some pop. Let him handle left field for a while and see what he’s got, I suppose, is the mindset.

I am sure that we are not far from a Watson debut or a Valera return engagement. Watson and Kayfus have some similar red flags as hitters, so I can’t argue too much there. I do think Valera has shown more signs of consistent plate discipline and power than Kayfus, but his defense looked borderline unplayable in most recent instances. I think it’s Kayfus for a bit and then if he isn’t showing much and DeLauter needs more time, we will see Valera before the All-Star break. But, hopefully, we will not be missing Chase that long.

Angel Martinez also has a foot bruise and is day-to-day. “Oh, what a night!” As the Four Seasons once said. Only in a much more somber tone from me.

The way this team responds to losing the leader of their team and future Hall of Famer will define the 2026 season. If they can find a way to pull together and win baseball games at a .500 level in his absence, that should be a great confidence builder for this group. If not, well… they will have some ground to make up in August and September and they have done that before.

I hope everyone remembers to go and vote Jose to the All-Star game. He deserves the selection and it will be a way for us to show our appreciation to a player whose absence we are about to feel keenly, even if the team is able to step up during his recovery.

The A’s came out on top for the fourth straight night in Las Vegas, beating the Colorado Rockies 7-5. The win put the A’s back at .500, secured the series win and gives the Athletics a chance at a sweep tomorrow afternoon. And thanks to losses from a pair of division rivals in the Mariners and Rangers, the A’s rose in the AL West to sole possession of second place and just a game back of first place.

The A’s got to work quickly against Colorado starting pitcher Kyle Freeland. A first inning single and walk put two on for the recently returned Jacob Wilson, and he came through with a two-out, two-run single to give the Green & Gold a quick lead:

The Rockies would soon get one of those runs back against A’s starter Joey Estes, who was making his first big league start in over a full calendar year. After a solid start with two uneventful innings Colorado catcher Brett Sullivan came to the plate to lead off the top of the third and got ahold of a hanging breaking ball in the middle of the zone for a solo home run to put the Rockies on the board. Estes bounced back to retire the next three batters in a row but gave up another run in the fourth that tied this game up at two-all.

With Freeland still in the game the A’s offense needed to get back to work. Rookie center fielder Henry Bolte began the bottom of the fourth with a leadoff single. Zack Gelof, playing right field tonight, was next up to the plate and he got ahold of his own misplaced pitch, launching a two-run home run to retake the lead for the A’s:

That blast was #9 on the year for Gelof and it also extended his hitting streak to 17 games, currently tops in MLB.

But Estes couldn’t supply the much-needed shutdown inning. The Rockies rallied for three runs in the top of the fifth, with two charged to Estes and another charged to his replacement left-hander Jose Suarez. Once again the A’s would have to ask their offense to bail them out.

It took them a couple innings but they did some serious damage in the bottom of the sixth. First, with a runner on second and two outs the A’s needed a base hit and Alika Williams delivered one, tying this game back up at 5 with a bloop RBI single to center:

Williams would finish the night 3-for-3 with that RBI and a run scored. That hit also chased Kyle Freeland from this contest and we were now into a below-average Rockies bullpen. Mark Kotsay decided to counter the pitching change with a swap of his own, pinch-hitting Tyler Soderstrom for Colby Thomas. His decision worked to perfection as Sodey came through with a go-ahead RBI double:

Things continued to unravel from there for the Rockies. An intentional walk was followed by an unintentional one, loading the bases for the A’s but still with two outs. Again Kotsay turned to his bench, this time going with the lefty in Carlos Cortes in place of switch-hitter Jonah Heim. And again it worked out, but with some help via a hit by pitch that brought home the Athletics’ seventh run of the evening. The A’s now had a two-run lead with nine outs to go. Could the bullpen hold for a second straight night?

Next out of the ‘pen was Scott Barlow. He pitched a scoreless seventh with just a meaningless walk allowed. Fellow righty Mark Leiter Jr. followed him for the eighth and tip-toed around a runner making it to second to post a zero himself. With a two run lead it was now up to Elvis Alvarado to close this one out against the 7-8-9 batters in Colorado’s lineup. With a 1-2-3 inning he sealed the deal, finishing off the Rockies for the win and securing his second save of the year.

Another solid win, if not perfectly well-rounded. Estes looked good in his first two innings but quickly fell apart. On the bright side he at least managed to provide 4 1/3 innings, saving the bullpen from a heavy lift tonight. The offense came through with 11 hits with only one of those leaving the yard. Gelof’s hit streak continues, the A’s are back to .500 and we’re right back on the Mariners’ heels in the AL West.

The series wraps up tomorrow afternoon for the series finale. Lefty Jeffrey Springs, who was originally scheduled to start tonight’s contest, will instead get the ball for the last game of the series. He’ll be hoping to bounce back from a tough stretch in what’ll he his 15th start of the year for the A’s. He’ll be opposed by Rockies right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano, who has been a solid if unspectacular member of a subpar Colorado starting rotation this season.

The best, most positive bright spot of this game and this series is that it happened late at night on the West Coast, in between a packed World Cup slate, and during Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Ideally the absolute minimum amount of people were exposed to the completely lifeless version of the Rays that June has wrought.

Rays couldn’t make the key defensive plays needed to win. They couldn’t come up with any clutch hits or even weak hits with runners in scoring position. Rays pitched well enough but not well enough. Angels on the other side did all of those things.

And isn’t that the true biggest level of agony: the Angels?! The freaking Angels? The Martin Prince of baseball teams are bully balling their way to shoving the Rays into a locker? Oh, that does it!

Let me make this relatively quick and painless for those lucky enough not to have watched.

Griffin Jax continued to be sharp in a starting role. 5 innings, 5 hits, no walks, and 5 Ks. The only run he gave up, and the reason for the L on his ledger, is a very sharp grounder directly to Taylor Walls which Walls could not handle and hopped wickedly off of him into the outfield. A fairly harsh error, but also a ball I know Walls would say he needed to make, especially with 2 outs to preserve the shutout.

Rays bullpen was less sharp, but Cash wisely chose not to chase the late trailing game (1 run seems like 10 right now) and used the strugglers and returners. Garrett Cleavinger continued to be ineffective, but at least it was quick. 3 batters, 1 K, 2 hits, and 1 out recorded. Recently returned Craig Kimbrel was very wild and got tagged for MORE 2 out offense from the Halos.

Later on, Cash got more of the low leverage struggle bus involved and Cole Sulser gave up a 2 run dinger to Jose Siri. The Angels would feast some more off of Sulser, who also could not finish a full inning, leaving with just 2 outs recorded 5 hits and 1 walk and 4 ER given up.

On the offensive side of things, there was nothing to really write home (or in recap) about. Yandy Diaz extended his on base streak to 26 games and the Rays didn’t get no-hit. The went 0-7 with RISP and left 6 on base, but there never really was a serious threat of scoring. This yard sale whiff from Caminero pretty much sums up the Rays June:

With a Yankees thrilling win and Tampa Bay’s humiliating loss tonight, the Rays sink to 2nd place for the first time since May 8th.

Oh, I just thought of more good news: June only has 30 days.