Did Kyle Freeland's home plate collision lead to IL stint for Rockies pitcher?

The Colorado Rockies placed pitcher Kyle Freeland on the 15-day IL on Friday with a left elbow strain, retroactive to Tuesday. This comes days after the righty was involved in a collision at home plate when he came in to pinch-run.

Freeland has been taking it easy since the collision and has not appeared in a game since. However, he explained that the injury was not because of the collision, but happened earlier in the season, per team insider Thomas Harding.

"Those kinds of people need to get their facts straight before they spin a narrative off into social media," Freeland told Harding.

Freeland stated that the injury occurred during the previous series against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Why did the Rockies have Kyle Freeland pinch-running?

Colorado Rockies - Kyle Freeland (Image via Getty)

Against the Philadelphia Phillies, the Colorado Rockies had a short bench. Brendan Rogers and Jake Cave were both dealing with illnesses, and Kris Bryant has been dealing with a sore back and is now on the IL.

This left manager Bud Black to pick between Kyle Freeland or backup catcher Jacob Stallings. While Freeland does not normally run the bases, he was likely the faster option.

Freeland tried to score the go-ahead run off a wild pitch. However, J.T. Realmuto recovered quickly and fired a strike to home plate to narrowly beat Freeland.

The game went into extra innings, where Colorado failed to score. Philadelphia did not and ended the game on a Cristian Pache single that scored Bryson Stott.

Colorado will be without Freeland for the next few series. He will be eligible to come off the Injured List on May 1 if he is healthy enough.