Dollander seeks answers to puzzle of pitching at Coors Field

DENVER -- Rockies rookie Chase Dollander’s next step just might be to pull out the phone.

Dollander vacillated between unhittable pitches and enough mistakes to give up six runs in five innings of an 8-2 loss to the Giants on Monday in another uneven performance at Coors Field.

The team’s top Draft pick in 2023 and a member of the rotation in his second pro season, Dollander has thrived and struggled. The numbers show a home-road disparity. In 11 home starts, he has a 9.98 ERA and has yielded 12 homers (two on Monday) in 46 innings. In nine road starts, his ERA is 3.64 ERA -- in his last seven, it’s 2.95.

So maybe it takes a pitcher who has succeeded in purple pinstripes to teach one.

Dollander has the numbers of Scott Oberg, a Rockies pitching coordinator who overcame early-career inconsistency to have a successful run as a reliever. As Dollander spoke postgame, lefty Kyle Freeland was in street clothes in front of the locker beside his.

“I’ll probably talk to Obie [Oberg] -- he had a lot of success here,” Dollander said. “Freeland, he’s had some success. There are guys that have been in the Rockies org that have pitched here for a while. It’ll be really valuable to pick their brains.”

Aaron Cook, a former All-Star who is one of the most accomplished right-handed starters in club history, sometimes joins the club, dons the uniform and sits in the dugout. In recent years, he has given his contact information to players and is there to talk.

Dollander needs Cook.

“I’ll probably give him a call, just kind of rant a little bit,” Dollander said.

Sometimes it looks as if Dollander, 23, has the answers in his right arm.

Monday’s first pitch, to Heliot Ramos, was a hot-blooded 98.6 mph fastball for a strike. The next pitch was left over the middle, but all Ramos could do was drive the heavy, 96.9 mph sinker to short.

Immediately thereafter, though, one of Dollander’s chronic conundrums at Coors Field came calling. Rafael Devers crushed a 90.7 mph cutter to right field for a home run. The ball exited at 114.5 mph – the hardest-hit Giants home run since Statcast began tracking such events in 2015.

In the third, Dollander hit Patrick Bailey with an 0-2 curveball before former Tennessee teammate Drew Gilbert’s two-run homer. Dollander smoked Casey Schmitt on the right arm at 95.7 mph with a 1-1 count to open a three-run fifth during which he walked two, including Willy Adames with the bases loaded. His day ended with a two-run single that Dominic Smith tapped into left field.

“That’s the most frustrating thing ever -- you didn’t beat me,” Dollander said. “That’s how I looked at it. He didn’t beat me there. And if he thinks that he beat me, he’s wrong.”

In and around all that came a double-play grounder by Schmitt that let Dollander escape a leadoff walk in the second, and an 11-pitch fourth inning. Those sequences looked to be answers to earlier rough outings (mostly at home), when hitters were allowed to extend plate appearances and drive up the pitch count.

In his last start, Dollander held the Astros to one run and three hits, with seven strikeouts and four walks, in a 4-0 Rockies road loss. Monday, he yielded the six runs on five hits, with two strikeouts against three walks and two hit batters.

“All his stuff is good,” interim manager Warren Schaeffer said. “So it’s just a matter of him executing it. That’s all.

“I thought Chase was OK overall. It was just the free passes.”

Dollander’s fastball was effective, but the breaking pitches that he had in the pregame bullpen deserted him during the game and were off-and-on at best.

Free-agent pitchers tend to avoid Coors Field, and the Rockies don’t have the type of roster surpluses to dictate trades for star pitchers. So Dollander, like many who struggled and thrived before him, will have to find his way to the run of success that his talent indicates is possible.

Dollander will ask a village of pitchers who have excelled for the Rockies to help him find his groove.

“Any struggling pitcher will say that they want to have success,” Dollander said. “It’s just a matter of figuring it out. I’m going to have some conversations with some people, and I’m going to figure it out.

“There’s no question.”