Field Level Media
Aug 15, 2021
Left-hander Kyle Freeland continued his career-long mastery of the San Francisco Giants and C.J. Cron smacked a home run Saturday night as the visiting Colorado Rockies snapped a four-game losing streak with a 4-1 victory over the National League West leaders.
Freeland (4-6) improved his lifetime record to 7-3 against the Giants with six innings of five-hit, one-run ball against a team that had peppered Rockies pitching for 12 runs and 18 hits in winning the first two games of the series.
The Denver native walked two and struck out six.
Seeking a seventh straight win, the Giants instead scored only run against Freeland. It came in the last of the second after Cron's solo homer, his 19th of the season, had given Colorado a 1-0 lead in the top of the inning.
Donovan Solano singled home Evan Longoria, who had singled, to draw the Giants even.
The Rockies' last three runs were all the product of infield outs, or ground balls that should have resulted in infield outs.
After a single by Brendan Rodgers, a double by Trevor Story and a walk to Charlie Blackmon loaded the bases against Giants reliever Dominic Leone (2-2) in the sixth, Cron's grounder to shortstop plated Rodgers with the eventual difference-making run.
Ryan McMahon followed with another grounder, but it was booted by Giants second baseman Solano, allowing Story to score and increase the lead to 3-1.
McMahon produced a second RBI with a similar grounder in the eighth, a fielder's choice that again scored Story.
Leone got the loss, charged with two runs in one-third of an inning.
The Giants had started the game with an opener, Sammy Long, who served up Cron's homer among two hits in two innings.
Jhoulys Chacin pitched scoreless seventh and eighth innings, before Daniel Bard worked around a two-out single in the ninth for his 19th save.
Story doubled twice and scored a pair of runs for the Rockies, who won for just the fourth time in 12 meetings with the Giants this season. Cron joined McMahon with two RBIs.
Brandon Crawford had two singles for the Giants, who out-hit the Rockies 7-5.
The Giants had no extra-base hits.
--Field Level Media