MLB

The Rockies erased a 6-3 deficit by scoring five in the top of the eighth, only to see the Angels tie things up in the bottom of the inning. In the ninth, Kyle Karros singled, McCarthy doubled and TJ Rumfield delivered a sac fly to make it 9-8, and the Rockies held on this time. With the Rockies having three outfielders on the IL, McCarthy has been an everyday player of late, starting 17 straight games. The good times won’t last forever, but he’s a mixed-league outfielder right now.

Since the beginning of his rookie season in 2027, Freeland has allowed at least five runs on 58 occasions. That’s tied with the retired Kyle Gibson for second most during the timespan. The top spot belongs to Patrick Corbin with 62 such outings. Freeland wasn’t involved in the decision tonight, but he’s 1-6 with an 8.06 ERA in 10 starts. Still, nothing much figures to change here. Expect him to face the Brewers on Sunday.

Senzatela came in with an 8-6 lead, two on and one out in the eighth and gave up a game-tying triple to Jorge Soler. Still, he preserved the tie from there and then worked a scoreless bottom of the ninth after the Rockies regained the lead in the top of the inning. Senzatela is 5-0 with a 1.30 ERA. The Rockies probably shouldn’t risk waiting until the trade deadline to deal him.

Engraving Soriano’s name on to the AL Cy Young Award after his incredible April is looking like a mistake now. He’s walked 22 and allowed 19 earned runs over 33 1/3 innings in his last six starts, five of which turned into Angels losses. This seemed like the perfect opportunity for a rebound, but he instead walked seven against the offense with the second worst walk rate in baseball (only the Giants are worse). Soriano will probably have more good starts than bad going forward, but inconsistency has been a hallmark throughout his career. He’ll face the Dodgers next.

Yates allowed a single, a double and a sac fly to put the Rockies on top. Actually, all five batters he faced had hard-hit balls against him. It’d be fun to see Yates step up as the Angels’ closer, but the stuff just isn’t there at this point. The hardest of his six fastballs tonight checked in at 91.2 mph. The Rockies swung at seven of his 10 pitches and made contact every time.

Tovar joins Matt Wallner, teammate Willi Castro and Kyle Schwarber with five-strikeout games this year. Give this one some extra credit, though, as the rest of the Rockies combined to go 10-for-30 with five extra-base hits, 10 walks and just six strikeouts in scoring nine runs against the Angels. Tovar is hitting .216/.267/.328 in 221 plate appearances and might benefit from a Triple-A stint if it would do anything to encourage him to show even a tiny bit of discipline at the plate.

Siri is 7-for-23 with two homers and two doubles since his callup. He’s starting primarily against lefties, so there’s no fantasy value to be had here. However, he is the Angels’ best defensive outfielder, which might pay off if he remains somewhat productive.

Young’s hit was a little 65-mph flare to shallow left that no one had a play on. Fortunately for Young, automatic runner Randy Arozarena had just stolen third base; he almost surely would have been held up if he’d still been on second. Young also walked tonight. His .250/.325/.363 line isn’t going to make him a fantasy darling, but it’s really quite solid for a 22-year-old second baseman playing in one of the game’s toughest hitting environments half of the time.

Hancock never pitched with a man on base; he gave up two solo homers and retired the other 18 batters he faced. Hancock allowed only one homer in five starts last month before Jared Young and Marcus Semien got to him tonight. He left down 2-1 but avoided taking the loss after the Mariners tied things up in the seventh. Hancock has four wins and eight quality starts in 12 tries. He’ll face the Tigers on Sunday.

Manaea departed the game in line for the win, but Brooks Raley gave up a game-tying homer immediately afterwards. Even though this was set to be Manaea’s longest outing of the year, he found some extra velocity tonight, averaging 92.1 mph with his sinker. He had previously averaged 89.7 mph this year. Last year, he came in at 91.7 mph. If that gain sticks around, he could prove to be a viable mixed-league pitcher. However, he probably needs another strong outing right away this weekend against the Padres to avoid being sent to the pen if Kodai Senga rejoins the rotation next week.