Kyle Freeland, a Denver native, has become a Colorado Rockies legend.

For years, pitchers couldn’t figure out how to dominate at Coors Field. It turns out, if you raise them here in the Mile High City, they’re not afraid of attacking batters at altitude.

Freeland just enjoyed arguably the greatest pitching season in Colorado Rockies history, a franchise known much more for the Blake Street Bombers and being an offensive-heavy team. The former Thomas Jefferson High School pitcher finished his season with 17 wins, going 17-7, with a 2.85 ERA.

That 2.85 ERA is the lowest single-season ERA in Rockies history, and his 2.40 ERA at home set a franchise-best as well. Before Freeland, Ubaldo Jimenez’s 2.88 ERA in 2010 was the Rockies’ best mark for a pitcher throughout an entire season. That 2010 season was Ubaldo’s only All-Star game appearance, going 19-8 with a 2.88 ERA, and he enjoyed 214 strikeouts, too. That was, by far, Jimenez’s best season as a professional with a 12-year career.

That is the one year which rivals this sensational season by Freeland, the leader of a young but gritty starting group from Colorado, all homegrown talent.

The record-setting performance for Freeland comes in yet another record-setting performance for the Rockies, as they make the postseason for the second consecutive season, which is a franchise first. Colorado’s 5-2 victory over the feisty Washington Nationals means the purple and black will be in at the very least, the play-in game as the National league’s 2nd Wild Card team.

But, if Colorado can win their next two games and sweep Washington, it will mean the Rockies first-ever NL West title.

The Rockies made the playoffs in 1995, 2007 — their one World Series year — in 2009 and 2017 in the play-in game. They lost last season in Game 163 to the Arizona Diamondbacks, who this year helped the Rockies by beating the Los Angeles Dodgers twice in a recent three-game series.

If the Rockies do win the division or make it to the Divisional Series, Freeland will be a key component of Colorado’s starting pitching. That’s even more special considering he’s a Colorado native.