Removed from the pitching rotation, Chase Dollander used his emotions like jet fuel.

Now he’s rocketed back onto the scene for the Rockies. Boy, do they need his arm now, too.

Optioned to Triple-A on July 7 after walking four and allowing five hits and three runs in 3.2 innings against the Chicago White Sox, Dollander admits he allowed himself to be angry and frustrated about the demotion. However, until that time, he also realized he hadn’t lived up to his billing or potential, either.

After the White Sox outing, the ninth overall pick in the 2023 MLB draft had logged a 6.68 ERA through the first 15 starts of his MLB career. Perhaps more troubling for the Rockies were Dollander’s numbers after he returned from a stint on the 15-day injured list with right forearm tightness in late May. In the seven starts after being shelved by the injury, he posted a 7.20 ERA and logged fewer than 4.0 innings in four of those seven starts.

“Obviously you never want to get sent down, but what they (Colorado pitching coaches and evaluators) had to say was completely right,” Dollander told The Denver Gazette in an exclusive interview from St. Louis. “I needed to work on efficiency. I needed to work on getting my stuff in the zone as much as possible. I completely agreed with them. It was tough, but I had to take it for what it was worth and move on.

“I allowed myself to be angry or frustrated or whatever, but at the end of the day, it’s really my own fault. It’s one of those things you never want to happen, but it did. You just have to get to work and use it as fuel.”

Dollander did just that, turning the time at the Rockies’ pitching lab in Scottsdale and two starts for Albuquerque into the basis of how he would better himself for his return to Colorado.

And Dollander was better in his return, scattering five hits over 5.0 innings and allowing the St. Louis Cardinals to score just one run. It was an outing that was not only needed by Dollander, but the Rockies as a whole.

Entering his Monday outing, Colorado starters had posted an MLB-high 8.69 ERA since the All-Star break and Colorado pitchers overall had allowed a league-leading 259 hits and 44 home runs in that stretch.

“You want to build momentum and, as a starting pitching staff, you want to nip things in the bud and not continue to give up hits and runs,” Dollander said of his start as well as Kyle Freeland’s scoreless outing of 7.1 innings against the Cardinals the next night. “I think it was really important for us to set the tone for moving forward, like, ‘Hey, this is kind of what we expect.’ This is the standard now, so let’s stick to it.”

So what was the difference for Dollander? He told The Denver Gazette that it was about mixing up pitches better and landing them in the strike zone.

“I was just most happy about attacking the hitters. Being on offense when you’re pitching, I feel like that’s going to be huge thing for me, getting myself in the zone as much as possible,” Dollander said. “I feel like before I was sent down, I was being trying to be a little too fine with everything, rather than saying, ‘Hey, here it is. I want you to try to hit it.’

“It’s having that mindset of, if you hit it, cool. If you don’t, alright and move on.”

Dollander playing in the strike zone worked well against the Cardinals, with 60 of his 92 pitches going for strikes. Of his 60 pitches, 45 registered at 98.0 mph or higher.

“If I’m able to move my fastball around like I did (in St. Louis), I would say things are going pretty good,” Dollander said. “We always talk about fastball command is probably one of the most important things for a pitcher. When I’m able to move it up, down, inside or outside, it’s very important. The fact that I was able to put it up high in the zone as much as I did, because that’s where my fastball plays the best, was huge for me.”

One outing in St. Louis is the start for what Dollander hopes will be a strong end to the 2025 campaign, something the Rockies will need if they are to avoid MLB’s modern-era record for losses in a season. The Chicago White Sox set the record last season with 121.

Moving forward, look for Dollander to have a more aggressive mentality on the mound.

“I think it’s about the mindset of just attacking hitters,” Dollander said. “That’s one thing that’s going to serve me really well, especially with my stuff. It’s going to be hard for hitters to hit if I’m always ahead of the count and putting them on defense.”