Rockies’ Chase Dollander struggles vs. Giants in loss at Coors Field

Chase Dollander‘s Labor Day start was, well, laborious.

The rookie right-hander, viewed by the Rockies as their No. 1 starter of the future, continues to struggle mightily at Coors Field. The Giants scored six runs on Dollander in five innings, cruising to an 8-2 win on Monday afternoon.

“It’s just a matter of figuring it out,” said Dollander, adding that he didn’t have a good feel for his curveball. “I’m going to figure it out; there is no question about it.”

San Francisco had only five hits off Dollander, but two of them were home runs, and Dollander hurt himself by walking three batters and hitting two. Dollander, 2-12, has an overall ERA of 6.77. In 11 starts at Coors, he has a 9.98 ERA and has served up 12 home runs in 51 innings. On the road, Dollander has a 3.45 ERA over nine starts.

Before the game, interim manager Warren Schaeffer reiterated what he had said several times regarding Dollander’s poor outings at altitude.

“First of all, his career is so young, right? I’m not going to put too much stock in the home-road splits — as of now,” Schaeffer said. “Because he’s still trying to figure everything out in his first year in the big leagues.

“But maybe something to that is, this place, 100% more than any other place in the league, provides pitchers with a dilemma in their mind. ‘Do I need to do something different?’ We need to provide direction, in terms of the answers and the solutions to those (questions). No doubt.

“But Chase’s stuff is so good, that maybe for him  — at the moment, at this young stage — the best thing is to just say, “I can win here. I can pitch my own game here and it still works.’ ”

A snapshot of Dollander’s struggles came in the third inning. He had catcher Patrick Bailey in an 0-2 count, but then plunked him. Then, San Francisco right fielder Drew Gilbert, the No. 9 hitter with a .190 average, hit Dollander’s 2-1, 98.7 mph fastball into the right-field seats for a two-run homer. Gilbert and Dollander played one season together at the University of Tennessee.

The Giants’ other homer off Dollander came early. With one out in the first, Rafael Devers lined a 1-2 floating cutter over the right-field wall. The ball came off Devers’ bat at 115.4 mph, the hardest hit ball by a Giants player in the Statcast era (since 2015).

Dollander’s fifth inning was a mess. He hit Casey Schmitt in the elbow to lead off the inning, gave up a single to Gilbert, and issued back-to-back, two-out walks to Devers and Willy Adames to load the bases. Dollander paid for his generosity when Dominic Smith lucked into a two-run, check-swing single down the third-base line.

“That’s the most frustrating thing ever,” Dollander said. “He didn’t beat me. That’s how I look at it. There is no way he beat me. If he thinks he beat me, he’s wrong. There is no question about it.”

San Francisco extended its lead 8-2 in the seventh when Adames lofted a soft, 353-foot homer to left off Anthony Molina.