Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland warms up before his start against the Oakland A's on Thursday, February 27 at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Arizona. (Photo: Mike Rice/KOA)
Colorado left-hander Kyle Freeland put in plenty of work in the offseason to revamp his delivery.
The early returns were pretty impressive.
Freeland worked two crisp innings in the Rockies 5-2 Cactus League loss to the Oakland A's at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa. He only needed 11 pitches and retired six batters on one pitch.
The only run he allowed was a two-out solo home run to Chad Pinder in the second inning.
As he was warming up for the third inning, Freeland experienced back spasms and came out of the game.
"It's a little tight right now. It locked up on me a little bit when I was warming up," Freeland said after the game. "We decided to shut it down, not make anything worse out of it. It should be a few days and be fine. I'm not too worried about it."
Manager Bud Black said Freeland may miss his next start.
Freeland was effective in his two innings of work, allowing a run on a two-out home run to Chad Pinder. He recorded five ground ball outs.
"I felt great," Freeland said. "Command was great, got a lot of ground balls, soft contact. We executed our game plan today so I'm very happy."
The A's broke a 2-2 tie with three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning against right-hander Julian Fernandez.
The Rockies scored a run in the third on David Dahl's fielder's choice ground ball. That scored Garrett Hampson.
Nolan Arenado added his first home run of the spring in the seventh inning.
THE BOX SCORE FOR THE ROCKIES-A'S GAME IS HERE
The Rockies play at the Giants in Scottsdale on Friday night. The broadcast begins at 6:55 p.m. on KOA 850 AM and 94.1 FM.
Postgame comments from Freeland and manager Bud Black are below.