Dollander Can Live Up To Expectations In This One

Nationals vs. Rockies, 3:10 ET

Baseball has been very unpleasant for me this season, but bad months and weeks happen. I'm just getting mine out of the way early in the year. I've been doing this too long, and been too successful to lapse. Here's the thing: I had a rough NBA season, but the end of the year made it manageable. Things, if you keep working at them and believing, have a way of working out. That's how I'm feeling about the MLB right now. With that in mind, let's take on this game between the Nationals and the Rockies.

The Nationals are likely to end up as the fourth or fifth spot in the National League East. With the Phillies and Mets probably taking the top two spots and one of them battling for the Wild Card, there may not be much room for Washington to manage their way higher in the standings. The good news for them is that Atlanta has been terrible so maybe they can capitalize on that poor start and find a way to get to third in the division. My entire point here is not that third place is all that relevant, but that's what the goals need to be for Washington because the playoffs aren't realistic. Today they send out MacKenzie Gore to the mound in hopes of keeping the Rockies from getting anything going. Gore is 1-2 with a 3.52 ERA for the year and has a 1.26 WHIP. He has been consistent, getting at least five innings in each game, and six innings in three of four, but he has allowed nine earned runs over his past 17 innings as well. Rockies hitters have only seen him 15 times, getting three hits. 

Apr 17, 2025; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Washington Nationals hats and gloves in the dugout against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the sixth inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

The Rockies are a team that you can back at home. I'm not really saying you should do it confidently, but if you're going to bet on them to win, you should do it while they are in Colorado as opposed to anywhere else. Overall, the team is just brutal. They are going to be the bottom dwellers of the NL West once again. At the time of this writing, they only have two wins at home and three wins total. If you're a Rockies fan, I'm not really sure where the excitement or interest even comes at this point. Perhaps it relies around today's starter, Chase Dollander, who is considered their top prospect. Dollander has a 1-1 record with a 5.06 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP. He has only made two starts this year and gone over five innings in both. He has also allowed two homers in both of those starts.

The Nationals aren't a very good team and the bullpen is one of my bigger concerns about them. They have the worst bullpen in the league. Dollander still has a lot to figure out about the league and how to navigate a lineup, but the good news has been that he is at least fairly consistent so far. He isn't giving up a ton of runs even though some balls are leaving the yard. I'll take a shot here with the Rockies to win behind the rookie and potentially hurt that Nationals bullpen. 

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