DENVER -- Ryan Rolison, the Rockies’ No. 2 prospect (and top pitching prospect per MLB Pipeline), never questioned his ability to pitch in high altitudes. He spent last summer preparing.

Thursday night, he proved it in his third overall start -- his second at home -- for Triple-A Albuquerque, holding the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators (the A's affiliate) to two hits and zero runs in 5 2/3 innings, striking out four and walking one in the Isotopes' 2-1 victory.

Rolison also threw five innings, with five hits and seven strikeouts, against the Sugar Land Skeeters on Saturday. But the start on fans’ minds when he took the mound last night -- against the A's No. 4 prospect, righty Daulton Jefferies -- was whether he could bounce back from a rough Triple-A debut in high-altitude Albuquerque. Against Oklahoma City on May 22, Rolison struck out the side on 12 pitches in the first inning but gave up five runs on four doubles and two walks before being removed with two outs in the second.

Rolison knew his bad inning ended his night early, but he didn't attribute it to the altitude. After all, he spent last year in the Rockies’ Summer Camp and at their alternate training site, mostly at Coors Field.

“A lot of it comes from having that experience last year in Denver -- I kind of struggled a little bit at the beginning at elevation, throwing my curveball,” said Rolison, the team’s top pick in 2018 out of Ole Miss. “You’ve got to release the ball a little more out front with this elevation to get the same amount of break you get at sea level.

“Its been taking some of that information, talking to some of those guys up in Denver, writing those things in my journal and being able to make those adjustments.”

During a rehab assignment at Albuquerque, Rockies lefty Kyle Freeland talked to Rolison, 23. Rolison also said he is also eager to bend the ear of Austin Gomber, another Colorado southpaw.

Turns out Rolison's pitching repertoire combines the best of those two, a big reason the Rockies want him to move ahead of both in another respect.

Rolison’s fervor for challenging right-handed hitters inside rivals that of Freeland, who during his first Spring Training broke into a 10-year-old’s grin when he shattered the bat of Cleveland’s Carlos Santana. He also has a curve with similar action to that of Gomber, whose bender is of recognized quality.

The Rockies’ plan is to make Rolison’s changeup special -- before he arrives. After winning 17 games in 2018, Freeland needed an option to Albuquerque in ’19 to complete his development. Gomber is still learning his change, although he taught a masterclass Thursday while throwing six scoreless innings against the Rangers.

The Rockies put Rolison at Double-A Hartford to start the season with orders to improve the pitch. After three starts, the promotion to Triple-A came.

“He trusts it,” Albuquerque manager Warren Schaeffer said of Rolison's relationship with his changeup. “And he's learning how to use it and how to pitch with it against both right-handers and left-handers. But he's going to need that pitch at the next level. He just throwing [it] more and more.”

The message for Rolison is compete while wearing Triple-A blinders. The Rockies’ starters entered Friday with a 3.13 ERA at home, and have pitched reasonably well of late on the road despite the 4-22 mark away from Coors Field. With long relievers Chi Chi González and Jhoulys Chacín already on the roster and Rolison currently not on the 40-man roster, the Rockies can afford to call him up when he becomes consistent enough to force the issue.

“That’s always the preferred path, right?” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “A guy goes from level to level, and pitches well at that level to [the point where he] is deserving of a callup when needed. I'll say the same thing about any pitcher on the staff, right, this is a performance game.”

Rolison said the Rockies, who wholly developed three and partially developed another pitcher in the current rotation, have been “crystal clear” with their plans. So rather than dream of the phone call, he deals with the reality of pitching for the betterment of himself and the Isotopes.

That was the case Thursday, when Rolison worked against Jefferies, who also gave up one run in his 5 1/3 innings.

“I’m pitching to win every ballgame that I can,” he said. “I’m going to stay present.”