Chase Dollander fights through five innings, Spokane Indians edged by Everett 4-3
Baseball is a humbling game. Even first-round picks are going to have a rough night. But it’s also a sliding scale depending on the pedigree of the prospect.
Starting pitcher Chase Dollander has been stellar for the Spokane Indians this season – his first in professional baseball. And Friday’s numbers could have been worse – he only gave up two runs over five innings. But he allowed five hits and three walks, hit two batters and needed 89 pitches, 54 for strikes, to get that far.
The prized prospect, the Colorado Rockies’ first -round pick – No. 9 overall – in last year’s MLB draft, wasn’t particularly sharp. He missed glove-side regularly, and the 22-year-old appeared frustrated at times on the mound. He struggled to the point of needing a visit from pitching coach Blaine Beatty in each of the first two innings.
To complicate matters, the Indians’ bats remained mostly quiet for the second game in a row.
Everett’s Alex Sanchez hit a two-run double in the eighth inning and the AquaSox edged the Indians 4-3 at Avista Stadium.
The Indians (26-19) remain 2½ games ahead of second-place Eugene (25-23) with 20 games remaining in the Northwest League first half.
“He went out thinking that the plan on him was that they were going to be sitting on his fastball,” Beatty said of Dollander. “And I told him, I said, ‘Hey, listen, you’ve got the best fastball in this league so you need to go out there and use it.’ And when he transitioned back to his fastball, then his secondary stuff started showing up a little bit later in the game.”
Dollander (1-1) had a shaky first inning, allowing a run on two hits, a walk and a hit by pitch. He limited the damage by striking out the final two batters .
He walked two more in a scoreless second inning. Dollander got two quick outs in the third but back-to-back singles and a close play at the plate resulted in another run and 2-0 deficit. He needed 71 pitches to get through three innings.
Dollander hit his second batter of the game in the fourth but finished his last two innings unscathed.
“The first two innings he had to battle through it,” Beattie said. “But he made some pitches and hopefully learned something tonight – how good his fastball is and how he has to really establish that early in the game even at this level.
“He brings a lot of tools with him. He’s gonna navigate himself through it, but he’s gonna figure it out. He’s that kind of guy. You can tell that he’s got a thought process with everything he does.”
The Indians finally strung some contact together in the sixth inning. With one down, Cole Carrigg reached on a bunt single and went to third on Dyan Jorge’s broken-bat single to right. Kyle Karros grounded to third and Jorge was forced out at second, but Karros beat the relay and Carrigg scored to get the home team within one run.
Everett (22-26) added two insurance runs in the eighth off reliever Braxton Hyde in his third inning of work off a two-run double by Sanchez, the AquaSox’ No. 9 hitter.
Karros’ RBI single in the bottom half made it a two-run game again. The Indians had second and third with two down when Juan Guerrero’s hard grounder to third was bobbled and went as an RBI single to make it 4-3.
The Indians had the tying run on in the ninth, but Carrigg’s grounder up the middle was eaten up by Sanchez to end the game.
Roster update: Before Thursday’s game, the Indians announced that first baseman Parker Kelly and left-handed pitcher Nick Bush had both retired from professional baseball.
Kelly, 25, played in 23 games this season and hit .183 with no home runs and three RBIs. Bush, 27, was in Spokane on rehab assignment from Double-A Hartford. In two starts, he pitched seven innings with a 6.43 ERA and 2.29 WHIP.