Yankees look to get back on track after rare Rockies victory

The Colorado Rockies are on pace for an unwanted place in baseball history, and the schedule has been no help to them.

The New York Yankees are in Denver for a weekend series that started Friday night. The Rockies got a rare victory, 3-2, in the opener.

The Yankees will send Max Fried (6-0, 1.29 ERA) to the mound against Kyle Freeland (0-6, 5.68) in a matchup of left-handers in Game 2 of the series on Saturday afternoon.

New York had its four-game winning streak snapped but maintained a five-game lead over Toronto in the American League East. Even with the victory, Colorado (9-42) has yet to crack double digits in the win column. The Rockies had lost five straight games entering the series and are on pace to break the modern-era record for losses (121) in a season, set last year by the Chicago White Sox.

Colorado will have to beat Fried to reach two consecutive wins for just the second time this season, and it won't be easy. Fried, who is in his first season with the Yankees after seven-plus years with Atlanta, is 1-2 with a 3.66 ERA in six career appearances -- five starts -- against the Rockies.

Fried has been dominant in his first season in New York. The Yankees have won nine of his 10 starts, and he has allowed two or fewer earned runs in every outing.

Reliever Devin Williams, the Yankees' other significant offseason acquisition, had a rough start and lost his closer role after posting an 11.25 ERA. He has pitched well lately but said he isn't worried about reclaiming his job.

"It doesn't matter right now," Williams told the New York Daily News.

Colorado has a player trying to regain his form in first baseman Michael Toglia, who has been out of the starting lineup for three straight games and for the fourth time in the last seven.

Toglia, who had a streak of 106 straight starts at first base that ended in April, leads the majors in strikeouts with 71 and has just six home runs after hitting 25 last season.

Rockies interim manager Warren Schaeffer said he has kept Toglia out of the lineup to let him work through his struggles.

"We came up with a whole plan for him, because we care about him and we're wanting to get on the right path," Schaeffer said.

Toglia is hitting .205 for the season and just .133 on the road and said he accepts Schaeffer's plan.

"It's just a breather, to spend some time getting back on the fastball -- getting some barrel accuracy back," said Toglia, who entered Friday's game at first base in the eighth. "It doesn't take a lot of swings. It can click after one or two rounds. You just have to be there when it happens."

Freeland hopes his first win of the season happens against New York, a team he has faced twice in his career. He is 0-2 with a 5.91 ERA in those starts.

Freeland is coming off one of his best outings of the season when he allowed just one run in 5 1/3 innings of a 9-3 loss to Philadelphia on Monday. Freeland got a no-decision.

--Field Level Media