Freeland Faces the Machine: Colorado Visits Chavez Ravine

Kyle Freeland has been pitching for the Colorado Rockies for a long time, and at this point showing up to face the Los Angeles Dodgers requires a certain Zen acceptance of the universe’s indifference. He’ll throw pitches. Eric Lauer will throw pitches back. The Dodgers will be favored by a country mile.

Shohei Ohtani has 18 home runs for Los Angeles, a number that feels modest only because we have recalibrated our expectations to something approaching the supernatural. Freddie Freeman is hitting .293, doing Freddie Freeman things with the quiet efficiency of someone who has long since stopped needing to announce himself.

On the other side, Hunter Goodman has slugged 27 home runs for Colorado — a genuinely remarkable figure for a team that has been rebuilding since roughly the Mesozoic era. Troy Johnston is hitting .313. The Rockies have players. They just also have the Dodgers to deal with.

No grudges, no playoff implications for Colorado, and a Los Angeles team that is simply executing its season — a pitching matchup with a talent gap wide enough to park a bus in earns a smooth rating on the Chunk Scale. The story here is Ohtani, and even that story has become routine.