Rockies rookie left-hander and Denver native Kyle Freeland on Sunday came within two outs of pitching a Coors Field no-hitter against the White Sox in a 10-0 victory for Colorado (box score). The 24-year-old graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School in Denver would have recorded only the second no-hitter in Rockies history (Ubaldo Jimenez in 2010) and the second in Coors Field history (Hideo Nomo for the Dodgers in 1996). On top of all that, Freeland would've been only the 23rd pitcher to throw a no-hitter thrown as a rookie in MLB history. Instead, Melky Cabrera lined a single to left with one out in the ninth. Freeland, a good sport even under those disappointing circumstances, greeted him with a hat tip ... 

At that point, Freeland, who was at 126 pitches (80 of which were strikes) was lifted for reliever Jordan Lyles.

On the day, Freeland walked three and struck out nine. In the eighth inning, left fielder Gerardo Parra kept Freeland's bid alive with a diving snare of a fly ball off the bat of Yolmer Sanchez:

After this near-historic effort, Freeland now boasts an ERA of 3.77 in 107 1/3 innings this season. The majority of those innings have come at Coors Field, where Freeland's strong groundball tendencies have allowed him to avoid the usual fate. Obviously, he has been an important part of the Rockies' first-half success. They'll go into the break in the second wild-card position in the NL.