Chase Dollander Fires 7 Scoreless Innings in Mets Win
chase dollander delivered the first traditional start of his season on Sunday and made it count, throwing seven scoreless innings in a win over the Mets at Citi Field. The Rockies right-hander backed up a strong month with his best outing yet, giving Colorado a cleaner look at what he can do in a starting role.
The outing pushed his April ERA to 1.29, with 34 strikeouts in 28 innings. He also gave the Rockies a road answer after spending the start of the year in the bullpen, mostly working as a bulk reliever behind an opener.
Citi Field and Dollander
Dollander handled the Mets in his fifth road appearance of the season. He had already shown the same kind of strikeout power away from home early last week, when he limited the Padres to one run across six innings and struck out nine.
That was a sharp turn from his two home games at Coors Field, where Colorado scored one run total and lost both. In his second outing of the season, he allowed one run over 4 1/3 innings against the Phillies.
Colorado’s Rotation Test
Colorado used Dollander in a different role to start the year, and the move has paid off for now. The Rockies selected him with the ninth overall pick in the 2023 draft, and MLB Pipeline ranked him as the No. 2 prospect in the system in 2024 before he debuted last year and finished with a 6.52 ERA.
This season has looked different. His four-seamer is sitting at 99 mph, fourth among all pitchers, and he has more than doubled his sinker usage. The result is a 51.9% groundball rate, a 13.4% swinging-strike rate, and only 8.9% of contact pulled in the air.
Rockies and Coors Field
The Rockies are still working through the larger picture around him. Colorado brought in Paul DePodesta to run baseball operations this offseason, signed Tomoyuki Sugano, and remains three games under.500 after sweeping the Mets over the weekend. The club has not won 70 games since 2021 and is in a seven-year playoff drought.
For Dollander, the next step is simple enough: carry the same run prevention into more starts, especially at Coors Field, where the park has carried a 112 overall Park Factor over the past three seasons and ranked first in runs.
